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1 Libra
| Issuer | Companhia de Moçambique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Blue-green note with two circular guilloche vignettes at left and right, each bearing the pound sterling symbol, flanking a central sunburst motif with the Portuguese arms at its centre. The bank name BANCO DA BEIRA and denomination UMA LIBRA ESTERLINA are printed in bold letterpress across the middle, with the word OURO repeated above and below. A red oval overprint reading Companhia de Moçambique is applied diagonally across the face, and the date 15 de Setembro de 1919 with the place name Beira appears at lower left alongside two manuscript signatures above the imprint O ADMINISTRADOR and C. OFFPENTE. Overprint on Banco da Beira P#R7. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in blue-grey, the reverse centres on a large ornate cartouche of interlocking scrollwork and foliate guilloche with the denomination £1 above and below the central panel. A horizontal banner across the middle of the cartouche carries the legend UMA LIBRA ESTERLINA in bold serif capitals, with OURO inscribed immediately beneath. |
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| Comments |
The Companhia de Moçambique — a chartered company granted administrative control over the Manica and Sofala territories — issued its own currency independently of the Portuguese colonial government in Lourenço Marques. This note was printed by Bradbury Wilkinson, whose intaglio work for colonial and quasi-sovereign issuers was among the most technically consistent of any British security printer in the period.
By 1919, the Company's concession was already in long-term decline, and its currency arrangements were financially precarious. The libra denomination itself reflects the Company's deliberate alignment with sterling-area commercial practice rather than Portuguese escudo conventions — a political as much as an economic choice for an entity that answered more to shareholders in Lisbon and London than to any single monetary authority.