Catalog
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| Issuer | Câmara Municipal de Oliveira do Hospital |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Value | 1 Centavo (0.01 PTE) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in green on cream paper, the obverse is framed by an ornate guilloche border. Two large circular vignettes flank the central denomination text "VALE / 1 / CENTAVO"; the left circle contains the municipal coat of arms with castles and a Maltese cross, while the right circle carries a faint underprint vignette. The issuer's name "CAMARA MUNICIPAL DE OLIVEIRA DO HOSPITAL" runs along the upper margin, with manuscript signature lines for "O Presidente" and "Tesoureiro" at the foot. |
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| Obverse lettering | CAMARA MUNICIPAL DE OLIVEIRA DO HOSPITAL VALE 1 CENTAVO O PRESIDENTE TESOUREIRO (Translation: Oliveira do Hospital Municipal Council / Worth 1 Centavo / The President / Treasurer) |
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| Comments |
Oliveira do Hospital is a small inland town in the Coimbra district of central Portugal, and like hundreds of other municipalities, it issued its own cédulas — emergency paper fractional currency — during the severe coin shortage that gripped Portugal from roughly 1917 onward. The national government's inability to keep small-denomination metallic coinage in circulation forced local chambers, pharmacies, commercial associations, and even individual merchants to fill the gap with locally printed notes.
Municipal cédulas of this type were technically illegal tender beyond their issuing locality. Most were printed in very small runs and redeemed quickly once conditions normalized, which is precisely why surviving examples are disproportionately scarce relative to their humble face value.