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500 Escudos 6th. print
| Issuer | Banco de Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1938 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Brown intaglio print over green and gold guilloche underprint. Portrait of Infante Dom Henrique (Prince Henry the Navigator) positioned at right, with the Portuguese Coat of Arms at lower left. The plate designation Chapa 6 identifies this as the sixth print of the series. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in green, the central-left vignette presents the tomb of Infante Dom Henrique housed within the Mosteiro da Batalha (Monastery of Batalha), rendered in fine architectural detail against a guilloche background. |
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| Comments |
Waterlow & Sons printed several Banco de Portugal issues during the interwar period, and this 500 Escudos note belongs to a series that remained in production across multiple printings spanning nearly two decades — a sign of institutional confidence in the plates rather than any urgency to redesign. The sixth printing falls in 1938, during the consolidating years of Salazar's Estado Novo, when monetary stability was a political priority and the escudo was being carefully managed against sterling.
Waterlow's reputation took a catastrophic hit in 1925 following the Alves Reis affair — forged Banco de Portugal notes, also printed by Waterlow, nearly destabilized the Portuguese economy. That the bank continued using the firm into the late 1930s reflects how thoroughly the contractual relationship had been rebuilt after the scandal.