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 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd., New Malden, Surrey, United Kingdom |
| 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 | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO DECRETO No. 17.154 S. TOMÉ e PRÍNCIPE COLÔNIA PORTUGUESA VINTE ESCUDOS LISBOA, 12 de AGOSTO de 1946. (Translation: National Bank Overseas Decree no. 17,154 St. Thomas and Prince Portuguese Colony Twenty Escudos Lisbon, August 12, 1946.) |
| Reverse description | Brown intaglio print. A central vignette presents a female allegorical figure alongside a view of steamships, evoking maritime commerce and colonial trade. The Portuguese Coat of Arms is positioned at right, framed by engraved border work typical of Bradbury Wilkinson's output. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 — chartered in Lisbon but functioning as the note-issuing authority across multiple overseas territories simultaneously, including Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, and Portuguese Timor. This note belongs to the Mozambique series, where BNU held its monopoly on currency issue throughout the Estado Novo period. Bradbury, Wilkinson produced clean, technically accomplished work for numerous colonial issuers during the 1940s, and their intaglio printing for BNU was no exception.
The 1946 date places this issue in the immediate postwar period, when Portuguese Mozambique remained largely insulated from the economic disruptions that forced currency reforms elsewhere in southern Africa.