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20 Avos Banco Nacional Ultramarino
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
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| Printer | Hongkong Printing Press, Hong Kong |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO VINTE AVOS MACAU GERENTE (Translation: Overseas National Bank Twenty Avos Macau Manager) |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown on plain buff paper, the reverse is dominated by a central guilloche medallion bearing the large numeral 20 and the legend VINTE AVOS, flanked on either side by radiating rosette engine-turned ornaments and framed by two pillar vignettes. The bank name BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO appears in a curved banner across the top, with the Chinese rendering 大西洋國海外進理銀行 above it; the territorial name MACAU is inscribed on a scroll at the foot, with 澳門 repeated at lower left and lower right. Denomination numerals 20 / AVOS appear in starburst roundels at the upper corners, with Chinese denomination characters 弍毫 along each lateral margin. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino served as the note-issuing authority for Portuguese Macau throughout the colonial period, and this small-denomination 1942 issue was printed locally in Hong Kong — an arrangement that became impossible almost immediately after these notes were produced. Japanese forces had occupied Hong Kong in December 1941, meaning the press that printed this note was operating under Japanese occupation at the time of printing, a circumstance that raises unresolved questions about the actual production timeline and how the finished notes reached Macau.
Macau itself remained a neutral enclave throughout the war, technically under Portuguese administration but economically strangled and flooded with refugees. Low-denomination fractional notes like this one circulated intensely under those conditions.