20 Mil Reis

The Thesouro do Estado de S. Paulo issued this note during the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, when São Paulo rose against Getúlio Vargas's provisional federal government. Cut off from the Banco do Brasil's supply networks, the state treasury needed emergency currency fast — and Companhia Melhoramentos, better known as a paper and printing house, was pressed into service as the practical solution at hand.

Melhoramentos had absorbed the old Weiszflog Irmãos firm, which had legitimate commercial printing experience, but producing banknotes was a different discipline. The results show it. Security features are rudimentary by any contemporary standard.