50 000 Reis Bolama seal

The Banco Nacional Ultramarino served as the colonial note-issuing authority across Portugal's overseas territories, and this 50,000 Reis note is distinguished by its Bolama seal — the administrative capital of Portuguese Guinea at the time, a posting so remote and commercially thin that notes assigned there circulated in tiny numbers. Bradbury Wilkinson produced the series in London, as they did for a substantial portion of Portuguese colonial paper across this period.

The Reis denomination itself was already obsolete currency doctrine by 1909; Portugal had been running parallel escudo planning for years and would formally convert in 1911. Notes at this face value were effectively large-denomination instruments in a territory with almost no banking infrastructure to absorb them.