Catalog
20 Rupias
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1938 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Olive-brown intaglio print over a peach guilloche underprint, centred on a vignette of the Saptakoteshwar temple of Lord Shiva at Narve-Bicholim, near Panaji, Goa, flanked on both sides by language panels. The date appears at upper left, with the serial number in framed boxes at upper right and lower left, and a signature panel runs along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO EM NOVA GOA LISBOA, 11 de JANEIRO de 1938 DECRETO No. 17.154 VINTE RUPIAS PAGÁVEL AO PORTADOR NA INDIA PORTUGUÊSA (Translation: National Bank Overseas in Nova Goa Lisbon, January 11, 1938. Decree no. 17,154 Twenty Rupees Payable to bearer in Portuguese India) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino issued this note for circulation in Portuguese India — Goa, Diu, and Damão — where the rupia served as the local unit rather than the metropolitan escudo. Thomas De La Rue's work for BNU's Indian territories in this period is notably crisp in plate execution, the firm having supplied the colony's notes through multiple series dating back to the late nineteenth century.
By 1938, Portuguese India was an administrative anomaly increasingly surrounded by British Indian monetary infrastructure, and the rupia's exchange relationship with the Indian rupee was a practical daily reality for most users of this note.