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20 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1935 |
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| Printer | Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856-1990) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO DECRETO No. 17.154 PROVINCIA DE S. TOMÉ e PRÍNCIPE VINTE ESCUDOS PAGAVEL NAS DEPENDENCIAS DA PROVINCIA DE S. TOMÉ e PRÍNCIPE LISBOA, 26 de Junho de 1935. BRADBURY, WILKINSON & Co. Ld. GRAVADORES, LONDRES (Translation: National Bank Overseas Decree no. 17,154 Province of St. Thomas and Prince Twenty Escudos Payable at the premises of the Province of St. Thomas and Prince Lisbon, June 26, 1935. Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd. Engravers, London) |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue with elaborate guilloche work filling the entire field. A central intaglio vignette enclosed within a circular band bearing the legend "BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO" shows a seated allegorical female figure with a sailing ship in the background; the denomination numeral "20" appears in large format at both left and right within the guilloche framework. A red multicolour underprint adds depth to the design, and the printer's imprint is lettered at the lower centre. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese colonial finance — a private commercial bank granted monopoly rights over note issue across Portugal's overseas territories, from Mozambique to Timor. This 1935 issue belongs to a series produced during a period when the BNU was aggressively consolidating its emissions across multiple colonies under near-identical formats, distinguished primarily by overprint or plate text identifying the specific territory. Without the territorial designation, provenance between colonies can be genuinely ambiguous.
Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work on BNU colonial issues from this decade is consistently fine, though the paper has a known tendency toward foxing in high-humidity circulation environments — a practical consequence of notes spending their working lives in tropical coastal ports rather than temperate bank vaults.