500 Mil Réis 3rd.Banco do Brazil, Series A,B,C

The Banco do Brazil that issued this note was not the modern central bank but the third institution of that name — a privately chartered bank that operated from 1851 until its absorption into the Banco da República do Brasil in 1890. By 1868, it held the dominant position in Brazilian commercial banking, with the right to issue notes in Rio de Janeiro competing uneasily against the Banco do Brasil's São Paulo operations and a government perpetually anxious about paper money supply during the Paraguayan War's financial strain.

American Bank Note Company's involvement here is consistent with Brazilian institutional preferences of the period — domestic printing capacity was considered insufficient for security work of this type.