Catalog
500 Escudos 13th. print
| Issuer | Banco de Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1997-2000 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 125 × 68 mm |
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| Obverse description | Violet and brown intaglio on multicolour underprint. Portrait vignette of Portuguese chronicler and historian João de Barros (1496–1570) at right, with crowned shields superimposed on a global view at upper centre; flanking angel figures rendered in underprint at lower left and right. Issued as Chapa 13. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Violet and brown on multicolour underprint. Central vignette illustrates a scene evoking life in Portuguese India, with an armillary sphere — the so-called 'sphere of letters' associated with the teaching of reading — as the focal motif; two allegorical figures representing a man of science and letters and a merchant flank the composition, with naus (sailing ships) in the background. |
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| Comments |
The 13th print of this series represents the tail end of escudo-denominated currency in Portugal — the 07.11.2000 signature date, bearing Vítor Constâncio's name as Governor, places those issues within eighteen months of the escudo's effective replacement by euro banknotes in circulation. Constâncio would later serve two terms as Vice-President of the European Central Bank, a detail that lends the 2000 signing date a certain irony.
The breadth of signature combinations across the 1997 dates — six different second signatories paired with Fernandes de Sousa — reflects the full Board of Directors composition at that moment, a routine but catalogically significant variable that creates distinct collectible variants within a single print run.