Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2500 Reis Bolama seal
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1909 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 147 × 93 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Dark-green on multicolour underprint. Portrait vignette of Vasco da Gama at left, with a Type I red circular Bolama agency seal at lower centre and a vignette of his sailing ship at right. Guilloche underprint in multicolour tints frames the central composition. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO O THESOUREIRO DA AGENCIA DE BOLAMA PAGARA A VISTA A PORTADOR DOIS MIL E QUINHENTOS REIS EM MOEDA CORRENTE VALOR RECIBIDO (Translation: National Bank Overseas The Treasurer of the Agency of Bolama Pay in cash by carrier Two Thousand and Five Hundred Reis in currency Amount received) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino issued this note for Portuguese Guinea, a territory whose administrative center at Bolama gave the note its distinguishing seal — a practice the BNU used to differentiate circulation across its scattered colonial branches, all drawing on a shared London-printed stock. Bradbury Wilkinson produced the base notes; local validation through the Bolama overprint converted a generic colonial instrument into territory-specific currency.
Portuguese Guinea at this date was barely administered beyond the coast, and Bolama itself was replaced as capital by Bissau in 1941. Notes of this branch seal survive in smaller numbers than contemporaneous BNU issues for Angola or Mozambique, simply because the territory's commercial activity — and therefore its note circulation — was considerably thinner.