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1/2 Libra
| Issuer | Banco da Beira |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed predominantly in red and yellow-green, with an elaborate guilloche underprint at centre. The Portuguese royal arms vignette appears at upper centre, flanked by ornate floral corner medallions. The denomination numerals '1/2' are repeated at each corner, with the bearer clause and value inscription across the middle field, the issuing bank's name along the top border, and the place, date, and manuscript signatures of the Gerente and Administrador below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | MEIA LIBRA ESTERLINA OURO BRADBURY WILKINSON Y Cª GRAVADORES LONDRES |
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| Comments |
Banco da Beira was a short-lived commercial institution operating out of Beira, Mozambique — then Portuguese East Africa — and its note-issuing activity was brief enough that the full series remains genuinely uncommon. The half libra denomination is the smallest in the bank's issue, and Bradbury Wilkinson printed it during the same period they were producing notes for numerous colonial and quasi-colonial issuers across the British and Portuguese imperial orbits.
The libra as a unit of account in Portuguese colonial circulation was already an awkward legacy holdover by 1919, and these notes were not long in use before the escudo system asserted itself across Mozambique's monetary administration.