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20 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Escudos |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Portrait vignette of Francisco de Oliveira Chamiço at left, with the issuing bank's seal at right and the provincial arms at lower centre, all set within an ornate guilloche border typical of early twentieth-century intaglio printing. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central vignette enclosed within a circular guilloche band bearing the bank name, with a seated allegorical female figure flanked by sailing ships; denomination numeral "20" appears at both left and right within intricately engraved lathe-work panels, and a green underprint covers the field. |
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| Comments |
Bradbury Wilkinson's engraved work for colonial Portuguese issuers during the early 1920s was among their most technically accomplished output — fine intaglio detail on relatively thin colonial-grade paper that ages poorly, which is why genuinely intact examples of this series are harder to find than the print run alone would suggest.
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino held a monopoly on note issue across Portugal's overseas territories, but the London printing arrangement was practical rather than ideological — domestic Portuguese printing capacity at the time could not match BW's security engraving standards. This specific P#70 issue reflects a period of acute monetary instability in Portuguese Angola, where the 20 Escudo denomination was replacing earlier Réis-denominated notes following the 1914 currency reform that took years to fully implement in the colonies.