20 Escudos

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.