Catalog
5000 Reis Bolama seal
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1909 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Green on multicolour underprint. Portrait vignette of Vasco da Gama at left, with a red Type I Bolama agency seal at lower centre and a vignette of his ship at right. Intricate guilloche patterning frames the design throughout. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO O THESOUREIRO DA AGENCIA DE BOLAMA PAGARA A VISTA A PORTADOR CINCO MIL REIS EM MOEDA CORRENTE VALOR RECIBIDO LISBOA, I DE MARÇO DE 1909. (Translation: National Bank Overseas the Treasurer of the Agency of Bolama pay to the bearer Five Thousand Reis in currency amount received Lisbon, March 1, 1909.) |
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| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino's Guinea series was a colonial banking exercise built on plate economy — the same Bradbury Wilkinson designs served multiple Portuguese territories with minimal modification, differentiated primarily by overprint or seal. The "Bolama seal" designation here refers to the administrative stamp identifying Bolama, then the capital of Portuguese Guinea, as the issuing branch. Bolama lost its capital status to Bissau in 1941, which lends these early issues a minor geographical footnote that later notes in the territory lack.
BW's intaglio work for colonial Portuguese issues of this period was consistently high quality, though that hardly distinguished the note in the hands of a population where coin remained the trusted medium.