5 Mil Réis Thesouro Nacional, 3rd print

Brazil's Thesouro Nacional turned to Perkins, Bacon & Petch at a moment when the London firm's steel-engraved intaglio printing was considered the hardest technology in the world to counterfeit — a genuine concern in a country where unofficial paper instruments had been circulating in the provinces for decades before the Treasury moved to consolidate control. The 3rd print designation reflects successive tender batches rather than design revisions; the plates themselves remained largely unchanged across prints.

Surviving examples from this issue are genuinely uncommon. Brazilian tropical humidity and the informality of provincial circulation combined to destroy a disproportionate share of the output long before any preservation instinct took hold.