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20 Mil Réis Banco do Brazil
| Issuer | Banco do Brazil |
|---|---|
| Year | 1890 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on blue and multicolor lithographic underprint. At left, a vignette of a standing male and female figure; at right, a seated female allegory of Industry. Serial number and order number printed in black and red respectively, with the manuscript signature of the Treasurer of the Amortization Fund. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in olive-sepia by intaglio, with an elaborate guilloche border filling the entire field. At center, a finely engraved vignette of a lion and lioness at rest with two cubs between them. Denomination numeral "20" appears in large white-on-guilloche counters at left and right, with the inscription "VINTE MIL REIS" in a panel at the lower center and the legal authority text in a cartouche at the top. Printer's imprint "AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY. NEW YORK." appears at the bottom margin. |
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| Comments |
The Banco do Brazil — distinct from the later Banco do Brasil — was a private commercial bank that received federal authorization to issue currency during the tumultuous early months of the First Brazilian Republic. The 1890 issues coincide directly with the Encilhamento, Finance Minister Rui Barbosa's aggressive credit expansion policy that flooded Brazil with bank-authorized paper and touched off a speculative bubble of remarkable intensity. Multiple banks were granted emission rights simultaneously, producing a chaotic proliferation of notes that the market struggled to absorb.
ABNC produced the plates in New York under contract, a common arrangement for Latin American issuers who lacked domestic security printing capacity. Single-signatory authorization — here Antônio Arnaldo Vieira da Costa alone — was characteristic of the bank's emission structure throughout this series.