20 Patacas

Banco Nacional Ultramarino's Macau branch operated under a concession originally granted in 1902, giving it sole right of note issue in the territory — a privilege that defined its presence there for decades. This 1910 issue predates the Portuguese Republic by only months; the October revolution that ended the monarchy came that same year, leaving notes printed under the royal regime circulating into an entirely different political order without recall or overprint.

Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work on this series is characteristically fine. The firm's Macau commissions from this period are among the rarer entries in their production ledgers — low print runs for a small colonial entrepôt with a correspondingly narrow circulation pool.