50 Escudos

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.