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2500 Réis
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1909 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1460–1524), credited as the first European to reach India by sea, flanked by sailing ships rendered in an engraved style. The design is framed within elaborate guilloche borders typical of Bradbury Wilkinson production, with the denomination and bank legends arranged around the central portrait. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | PAGAVEL NA FILIAL EM LOANDA BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO (Translation: Payable at the branch in Luanda, National Overseas Bank) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino held a unique position in Portuguese colonial finance — chartered in Lisbon but operating as the note-issuing authority across multiple overseas territories simultaneously, including Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, and Portuguese India. A single plate design from Bradbury Wilkinson could therefore circulate under different overprints or countermarks across wholly separate colonial economies, which complicates provenance research on this series considerably.
Pick 30 is among the scarcer BNU issues of the period. The 1909 date places it at the tail end of the constitutional monarchy, two years before the revolution that abolished the House of Braganza and restructured colonial banking oversight entirely.