20 Rupias

Banco Nacional Ultramarino's Goa branch issued this note for Portuguese India at a time when the rupee-based monetary system there operated in deliberate isolation from both British India and metropolitan Portugal. The 20 Rupias denomination served the middle tier of daily commercial transactions in the territory's coastal trading economy.

Bradbury Wilkinson had a long relationship with BNU across multiple colonial territories, and their intaglio work for the Portuguese possessions is generally considered among the finer examples of early-twentieth-century colonial currency printing. The plate quality on the 1906 Goa series holds up well against contemporaneous issues from British colonial printers working for rival administrations.

Pick 17 is notably scarce — surviving examples in any condition are infrequently offered.