50 Patacas

The Banco Nacional Ultramarino, a Portuguese overseas bank chartered in 1864, maintained note-issuing authority in Macau throughout the colonial period. By 1944, wartime conditions had made the usual recourse to European printers impossible — Portuguese Macau was surrounded by Japanese-occupied territory, and supply lines to Lisbon were effectively severed. Local production became the only viable option.

Printing by Um Chon & Cia in Macau itself is the defining fact of this issue. The quality of locally produced wartime notes rarely matched what Bradbury Wilkinson or the Portuguese state press could deliver, and this series is no exception — registration inconsistencies are common on surviving examples.