20 Avos

The Banco Nacional Ultramarino served as the note-issuing authority for Portugal's overseas territories, and this 20 Avos belongs to the postwar Macau series — a low-denomination piece intended for everyday transactional use in a colony where pataca-denominated notes handled larger sums. Bradbury Wilkinson handled much of the BNU's colonial production in this period, their London presses supplying Portuguese territories from Mozambique to Timor.

At this size and denomination, attrition rates in circulation were high. Surviving examples in any respectable grade are harder to locate than the catalog frequency of the series might suggest.