5 Avos

Banco Nacional Ultramarino issued this Timor 5 Avos as part of a wartime series necessitated by the near-impossibility of supplying the territory with adequate coinage. Japanese occupation of Timor from 1942 onward disrupted normal monetary operations entirely, and notes of this denomination — too small for most transactions in calmer times — became genuinely necessary for day-to-day exchange under occupation conditions.

Bradbury Wilkinson printed the series in London before the occupation cut off resupply. How many reached circulation before the Japanese arrived, and how many were destroyed or captured, remains difficult to establish with precision.