50 Mil Réis Thesouro Nacional, 16th. Print

Brazil's Thesouro Nacional leaned heavily on the American Bank Note Company throughout the early Republic period, and this 16th print of the 50 Mil Réis is part of that long-running dependency. ABNC supplied the majority of Brazilian federal paper during the 1920s, a decade when domestic printing capacity couldn't keep pace with the government's fiscal demands — itself a symptom of the chronic deficit financing that plagued the Old Republic before the 1930 revolution swept it away.

The "16th print" designation reflects Brazil's practice of issuing successive impressions under the same Pick number rather than redesigning. Distinguishing prints requires close attention to control numbers and series letters.