5 Escudos

Banco Nacional Ultramarino held a unique position among colonial institutions — it functioned simultaneously as a commercial bank and as the note-issuing authority for multiple Portuguese overseas territories, meaning the same Bradbury Wilkinson plates were often adapted across different colonies with minimal modification. For this series, Bradbury Wilkinson's New Malden facility was producing notes for a Portuguese colonial bank at a moment when Portugal's own metropolitan economy was under considerable strain from the Second World War, despite Lisbon's formal neutrality.

The P#25 designation places this within a broader Mozambique issue sequence. Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work from this period is among the finest produced for any colonial issuer.