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5000 Reis
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1909 |
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| Reference(s) | P#37 |
| Obverse description | Portrait vignette of Vasco da Gama at left, with the colonial arms at upper right and a central seal inscribed COLONIAS, COMMERCIO, AGRICULTURA; sailing ships appear at right. The note bears the issuing branch designation for Lourenço Marques and is typeset with the denomination in full. The overall layout follows a classical letterpress and intaglio style typical of Bradbury Wilkinson productions of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central oval vignette of a seated allegorical female figure surrounded by intricate guilloche lacework and decorative underprint in green, with the numeral 5 appearing in large format at both left and right. The bank title BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO arcs around the central vignette, and the branch designation FILIALA EM LOURENÇO MARQUES is inscribed at the top. The printer's imprint of Bradbury Wilkinson & Co. and the engravers' credit appear at the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Bradbury Wilkinson produced this note for the Banco Nacional Ultramarino, the Portuguese state-backed colonial bank that held the note-issuing monopoly across Portugal's overseas territories. By 1909, the BNU was managing currency for an unusually dispersed empire — from Mozambique and Angola to Timor and Macau — which meant notes of this type were sometimes shipped considerable distances before reaching their intended territory of circulation, with the specific province designated only at the point of issue.
The 5000 Reis denomination sits near the top of the pre-Republican Portuguese monetary scale, which was abolished entirely when Portugal decimalized to Escudos in 1911 — just two years after this note was printed.