50 Mil Réis Thesouro Nacional, 1st print

Brazil's Imperial Treasury turned to Perkins, Bacon & Petch at a moment when the firm's intaglio steel-engraving process was considered the most counterfeit-resistant printing technology available. Jacob Perkins had pioneered the steel die transfer method — allowing identical impressions to be reproduced from a single hardened master — and the Brazilian government was acutely aware of the counterfeiting problems that had plagued earlier copper-plate currency.

This is the first print of the series, distinguishable from later impressions by specific plate characteristics that specialists use to sequence the issues. The 1835 date places it squarely in the regency period following Pedro I's abdication, when fiscal instability made the credibility of paper money a genuine political problem, not merely an administrative one.