2500 Réis

Banco Nacional Ultramarino, chartered in Lisbon in 1864, held the note-issuing monopoly for Portugal's overseas territories — this piece would have circulated in one of those colonial jurisdictions rather than metropolitan Portugal itself. The 2500 Réis denomination is an unusual one by European standards, reflecting the older mil-réis accounting system still in use across Portuguese possessions at the time.

Bradbury Wilkinson's involvement was commonplace for colonial currency of this period; the London firm handled security printing for dozens of colonial authorities simultaneously. What matters here is that 1909 sits just two years before the Portuguese monarchy collapsed — notes of this vintage carry the royal authorization apparatus of a regime with roughly twenty-four months left.