500 Escudos

Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese finance — it was a private institution holding colonial note-issuing rights across Portuguese Africa and Asia simultaneously, a concentration of monetary authority that would have been unthinkable for a metropolitan bank. The 1924 500 Escudos belongs to a series for metropolitan Portugal itself, issued during a period of severe fiscal instability when the escudo had already lost most of its pre-war gold parity.

Waterlow & Sons produced the plates. Perforation as the primary security feature reflects the budget constraints of the period — intaglio printing was expensive, and Portugal's finances in 1924 left little room for elaborate paper security.