Catalog
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| Issuer | Thesouro Nacional (National Treasury of Brazil) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#19 |
| Obverse description | Printed in burnt sienna on ochre underprint, in intaglio (chalcography) and lithography. At left, a vignette of a seated female allegorical figure with the arms of the Republic; at upper right and center, blank reserve areas bearing watermarks of the interlaced letters "RB" and the legend "CINCO MIL RÉIS". The designer and engraver credits appear in the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection description | Interlaced letters "RB" and the text "CINCO MIL RÉIS" visible in the blank reserve areas of the obverse |
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| Comments |
Brazil's monetary situation in 1903 was still unwinding from the catastrophic milréis inflation of the 1890s, itself a direct consequence of the Encilhamento — the speculative boom triggered by Rui Barbosa's liberal credit policies after the 1889 republic. The Thesouro Nacional was issuing notes rather than the Banco da República do Brasil, which had been stripped of emission rights following that crisis. Contracting the Banque de France for this series was a deliberate signal of fiscal seriousness to foreign creditors at a moment when Brazil's international creditworthiness was under acute pressure.
Duval and Crosbie were a known pairing in the Banque de France's engraving atelier during this period. Crosbie's intaglio work on Brazilian commissions is among the finer export printing the institution produced before the First World War reorganized its priorities entirely.