500 Reis 3rd. print - overprint 'REPÚBLICA'

The "REPÚBLICA" overprint on this 1904–10 series places it at a precise political rupture: the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic on 5 October 1910, which immediately rendered all Monarchist-era banknotes symbolically unacceptable without modification. Rather than withdraw and reprint the entire stock, the Banco de Portugal simply overstamped existing 3rd-print 500 Reis notes to neutralize the monarchical associations embedded in the original design.

The overprinting was done in-house at the Estamparia do Banco de Portugal — the same facility that produced the base notes — which kept the operation quick and the paper supply intact during a period of genuine institutional uncertainty.