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5 Centavos Arcos de Valdevez
| Issuer | Hospital de S. José, Arcos de Valdevez |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917-1922 |
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| Value | 5 Centavos (0.05 PTE) |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the Hospital de S. José building in Arcos de Valdevez, rendered in a fine letterpress engraving style. The denomination and issuer name are inscribed in the surrounding text, with the Provedor's signature line below the vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central intaglio-style vignette of a seated allegorical female figure attended by two young children on stone steps, enclosed within a rectangular frame. The numeral '5' within a circular cartouche appears at upper right with the denomination 'VALE / 5 / CENTAVOS', and the entire composition is surrounded by an ornate rosette-pattern guilloche border. The initials 'J.F.O.' appear at lower right of the vignette. |
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| Comments |
Portuguese hospital cédulas are among the stranger byproducts of the First Republic's chronic coinage shortage. Between roughly 1917 and 1922, small-denomination emergency notes were issued by an extraordinary range of local bodies — municipalities, misericórdias, industrial firms, and, as here, hospitals — to substitute for low-value bronze and cupro-nickel coins that had disappeared from circulation through hoarding. The Hospital de S. José in Arcos de Valdevez, a small market town in the Minho, was one of the more unlikely issuers in that catalogue.
These cédulas were technically illegal under several successive decrees but were tolerated because the alternative was commercial paralysis. Arcos de Valdevez examples are rarely encountered outside northern Portuguese collections.