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50 Escudos

Issuer Banco Nacional Ultramarino
Year 1921
Type Standard circulation banknote
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Obverse description Portrait vignette of Francisco de Oliveira Chamiço at left, with the seal of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino at center. The denomination appears centrally, with the Portuguese National Coat of Arms below, all set within a guilloche-patterned border typical of Bradbury Wilkinson engraving.
Obverse lettering BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO + PROVINCIA + — DE — ANGOLA CINCOENTA ESCUDOS PAGAVEL NAS DEPENDENCIAS DA PROVINCIA DE ANGOLA
(Translation: National Overseas Bank, Province of Angola, Fifty Escudos, Payable on the premises of the province of Angola)
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Comments

Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese finance: it was a private bank granted colonial note-issuing rights across Portuguese Africa, India, and the Pacific territories simultaneously. This 1921 issue was almost certainly destined for one of those colonial territories rather than metropolitan Portugal — BNU's domestic role was always secondary to its overseas mandate, and the Lisbon government's own Banco de Portugal held the mainland monopoly.

Bradbury Wilkinson handled a substantial portion of BNU's colonial note production during this period, a relationship that persisted across multiple territories and denominations. The London connection was purely practical: domestic Portuguese printing capacity for high-security intaglio work was limited.

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