| Descrizione del dritto |
Printed in shades of dark red and brown, the obverse centres on a vignette of a traditional Timorese village with thatched-roof huts set amid tropical foliage. The bank title BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO appears across the top panel in bold letterpress, with the denomination in both Western numerals and Chinese characters repeated in the corners and along the lower border. The date and decree reference LISBOA, 16 de Novembro de 1945 appear in the lower right field, flanked by two facsimile signature lines and the word TIMOR in a lower guilloche band. |
| Legenda del dritto |
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| Descrizione del rovescio |
The reverse is executed in the same dark red-brown palette, with a central circular vignette of a steamship at sea, enclosed within the Banco Nacional Ultramarino seal inscribed BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO / COLONIAS COMMERCIO AGRICULTURA. Two large guilloche rosettes bearing the numeral 25 flank the central motif on either side, with Chinese characters for the denomination in the outer corners. The legend BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO / PAGAVEL NA COLONIA DE TIMOR arcs across the upper register, and VINTE E CINCO PATACAS is lettered across the lower portion in bold type. |
| Legenda del rovescio |
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| Firma/e |
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| Tipo di protezione |
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| Descrizione della protezione |
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| Varianti |
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Waterlow & Sons printed this issue for Macau during the final year of the Second World War — a period in which the Portuguese enclave had maintained nominal neutrality while surrounded by Japanese-occupied territory. That precarious position kept the colony's financial infrastructure functioning independently of Lisbon's direct control, and the Banco Nacional Ultramarino operated accordingly, issuing notes to manage a local economy under severe pressure from wartime inflation and commodity scarcity.
P#20 is considerably scarcer than the later Waterlow-printed issues for Macau. Surviving examples in any honest circulated grade are not common, and the 1945 date places this at the very end of a troubled interval in the colony's history.