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Uma '1' Pataca
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green intaglio-printed note with a central vignette of traditional Timorese thatched huts amid tropical vegetation, flanked on the right by the Portuguese royal arms within a foliate cartouche. The denomination numeral '1' appears in each corner, with large Chinese characters '壹圓' superimposed centrally over the vignette; a Chinese-script legend runs across the upper register alongside the bank title 'BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO'. The date, decree reference, and two manuscript signatures appear in the lower portion, with the serial number printed twice in the left and upper-right fields. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Green guilloche-dominated design with an elaborate interlocking lace-pattern border enclosing two large denomination panels, each bearing the numeral '1' and the Chinese character '壹' at the corners. At centre, a circular vignette encloses a steam vessel at sea, surrounded by the inscriptions 'BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO' and 'COLONIAS. COMMERCIO. AGRICULTURA'. The denomination 'UMA PATACA' is set in a recessed panel across the lower centre, with the bank title repeated in the upper border register. |
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| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino had been issuing notes for Macau since the late nineteenth century, but wartime Macau was a peculiar place to be circulating paper — a Portuguese enclave surrounded by Japanese-occupied China, technically neutral and genuinely isolated. The 1945 date places this note at the very end of that strange interlude, when the territory's supply lines and monetary arrangements were under severe strain.
Waterlow & Sons printed the series in London under conditions that made physical delivery to Macau anything but routine. Notes from this issue are not commonly encountered in collectible condition, likely a function of heavy use in a small, cash-dependent economy with no easy resupply.