Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
20 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in purple and red, the reverse is centred on a large intaglio vignette of a classically draped female figure seated in profile, her gaze directed toward a harbour scene with a sailing vessel and a steamship beyond. Two ornate guilloche rosettes flank the central vignette, each enclosing the denomination '0$20' in white numerals on a dark ground. Scroll banners at upper left and upper right carry the split legend 'BANCO NACIONAL' and 'ULTRAMARINO'. |
| Reverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO 0$20 0$20 BRADBURY, WILKINSON & Cº / 1ºS GRAVADORES, LONDRES |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese colonial finance — it held note-issuing rights across multiple overseas territories simultaneously, and this 1914 20 Centavos piece reflects the wartime scramble for small-denomination paper that erupted across Europe and its colonies when silver and bronze coinage vanished from circulation almost overnight after August 1914.
Bradbury Wilkinson's involvement places it among the more technically accomplished small-change emergency issues of the period. The question of which specific territory this note was intended for is the critical one — BNU issued near-identical low-denomination notes for Angola, Mozambique, and other possessions concurrently, and the Pick 60 designation is the key differentiator here.