Catalog
20 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1935 |
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| Size | 171 × 110 mm |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in blue with elaborate guilloche work filling the entire field. A central intaglio vignette enclosed within a circular band bearing the legend "BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO" shows a seated allegorical female figure with a sailing ship in the background; the denomination numeral "20" appears in large format at both left and right within the guilloche framework. A red multicolour underprint adds depth to the design, and the printer's imprint is lettered at the lower centre. |
| Reverse lettering | PAGAVEL NAS DEPENDENCIAS DA PROVINCIA DE S. TOME e PRINCIPE BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ld. Gravadores, Londres (Translation: Payable at the premises of the Province of St. Thomas and Prince National Bank Overseas Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd. Engravers, London) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese colonial finance — a private commercial bank granted monopoly rights over note issue across Portugal's overseas territories, from Mozambique to Timor. This 1935 issue belongs to a series produced during a period when the BNU was aggressively consolidating its emissions across multiple colonies under near-identical formats, distinguished primarily by overprint or plate text identifying the specific territory. Without the territorial designation, provenance between colonies can be genuinely ambiguous.
Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work on BNU colonial issues from this decade is consistently fine, though the paper has a known tendency toward foxing in high-humidity circulation environments — a practical consequence of notes spending their working lives in tropical coastal ports rather than temperate bank vaults.