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 Mil Réis
| Issuer | Banco de Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1884 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Mil Réis |
| 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 | Brown intaglio print on cream paper with an elaborate guilloche border framing the entire note. A central vignette depicts a seated allegorical female figure beside the Portuguese coat of arms, enclosed within an oval wreath. The issuer's title appears in a curved banner at the top, with the denomination spelled out in a cartouche below the vignette, flanked by two oval underprint panels and the numeral 20 at each corner. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 20 |
| 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 |
The Banco de Portugal's 19th-century high-denomination notes were printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. in London — a firm that handled a substantial portion of Portugal's paper currency production during this period. The 20 Mil Réis occupied the upper end of everyday commercial use, a sum roughly equivalent to several months' wages for a Lisbon laborer in the 1880s.
Portugal was still operating under the milréis system that would survive until decimalization in 1911. The watermark security at this tier reflects the period's limits — sophisticated counterfeiting was a persistent concern, and the Banco de Portugal had faced embarrassing forgery episodes in earlier decades.