5 Mil Réis Thesouro Nacional, 10th. Print

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.