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50 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1958 |
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| Currency | Escudo (1914-1975) |
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| Obverse description | Red, green and multicolour note with a portrait vignette of João Texeira Pinto at left, the bank seal at right, and the Portuguese Coat of Arms at lower centre. The design incorporates intricate guilloche underprint patterns across the note field. Date and denomination inscriptions appear alongside the issuing authority legend. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO DECRETO-LEI Nº 39.221 GUINÉ CINQUENTA ESCUDOS LISBOA, 20 de NOVEMBRO de 1958. (Translation: National Overseas Bank Decree-Law No. 39,221 Guinea Fifty Escudos Lisbon, 20 November 1958.) |
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| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese colonial finance — it was a private institution granted sovereign issuing rights across Portugal's overseas territories, and the same basic note designs circulated, with local overprints or distinct plates, across Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, and beyond. This 50 Escudos was produced by Bradbury Wilkinson at their New Malden works, a firm whose intaglio craftsmanship was among the tightest in the trade during this period.
By 1958, BNU was already navigating the contradictions of issuing currency for territories that independence movements were beginning to contest. The notes themselves outlasted the political certainty that had commissioned them.