The First Republic (1910–1926) left Portugal a short but ornate paper-money record. At its peak sits the 50 Mil Réis of 1917, a large, allegorical design where engraving, tint and watermark choices carried the weight of state credit. To reach a finished plate, Banco de Portugal’s printer advanced through progressive proofs that isolate line work and spacing in single-color states, and then locked the approved layout as a Specimen without serials or live signatures. Those steps survive as the cleanest evidence of intent, long before tills and counters left their edits.

The pair presented here — a front progressive proof and a full specimen — captures that workflow end to end. Read together, they show how ornaments, portrait fields and guilloche were tuned, where margins were fixed, and how the security vocabulary of the Republic was set on paper. Use the filters above to pivot by type or year as this section grows with further proofs, specimens and archival pulls that document Portugal’s early twentieth-century printing at plate-true resolution.

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Portugal 50 Mil Réis Specimen, ND (1917), Pick 110s, PMG 35

Portugal 1917 - Banco de Portugal 50 Mil Réis Specimen (Pick 110s)

Specimen of the Banco de Portugal 50 Mil Réis, the grandest denomination of the First Republic’s intricate 1916–1919 issue. Printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co., London, without serials or signatures and perforated SPECIMEN, it reveals the full design before numbering and underprint were applied. PMG 35 Choice Very Fine. Read more →

PortugalSpecimen191750 Mil RéisPMG 35 Choice Very Fine Portugal First RepublicPick 110sPick 110ND 1917High DenominationPortugal1917
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Portugal 50 Mil Réis front progressive proof, ND (1917), Pick 110pp1, PMG 25 EPQ

Portugal 1917 - Banco de Portugal 50 Mil Réis Front Progressive Proof (Pick 110pp1)

Viewed alongside the matching specimen (Pick 110s), it completes the evolution from concept to circulation design-capturing Portugal’s reliance on British engraving houses for security printing during the First Republic and offering one of the only fully traceable proof-to-specimen pairs known for any pre-Escudo denomination. Read more →

PortugalProgressive Proof191750 Mil RéisPMG 25 EPQ Very Fine Portugal First RepublicPick 110pp1ND 1917Pick 110Portugal1917
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Portugal 1799 Real Erario 20000 reis apólice issued in Lisboa, serial number 37723 in red, blind embossed seal on the face, no red overprint present, with multiple official ink seals on the reverse

Portugal 1799 - Real Erario 20000 Reis Apólice, Original Issue, No Overprint, Lisboa No. 37723

Issued in Lisboa in 1799 under the authority of the Real Erario, this 20,000-reis apolice is a Portuguese royal-era public debt instrument payable to bearer. It represents state-backed debt from a period of administrative continuity in late eighteenth-century Portugal, before the political and fiscal disruptions of the nineteenth century. Read more →

PortugalPublic Debt Bond179920000 ReisVery Fine Public Debt BondApolice20000 ReisPayable to BearerBlind Embossed SealMultiple Reverse SealsNo OverprintOriginal IssuePre War of the BrothersReal ErarioLisboaPortuguese Treasury FinanceRoyal Era Fiscal PaperEighteenth Century State DebtAdministrative Validation SealsFiscal Control HistorySecurity Printing HistoryPortuguese Monetary HistoryPortugal17991811Museum GradeR9 Extremely RareTreasury BondShort-Term Treasury BondOne-Year MaturityInterest-Bearing DebtCirculating Treasury PaperFiduciary Paper MoneyEarly Portuguese Paper MoneyCirculating Public DebtGovernment Debt InstrumentPublic Loan InstrumentTreasury BillShort-Term Government DebtOne-Year Treasury InstrumentBearer Treasury NotePortuguese Paper MoneyEarly Paper CurrencyRoyal Treasury NoteInterest-Bearing Treasury NoteState Debt PaperCirculating Government DebtHistoric Treasury InstrumentGovernment BondSovereign DebtRoyal Treasury BondTreasury DebtBearer BondGovernment Paper MoneyCirculating BondPublic Debt InstrumentPortuguese Government DebtPortuguese Treasury BondPortuguese Treasury Bill18th Century Paper Money18th Century Government DebtEarly Government PaperHistoric Public DebtRoyal Erario BondReal Erario ApolicePortuguese Apolice1799 Portugal1799 Treasury Bond1799 Treasury Bill20000 Reis Apolice20000 Reis Treasury Bond20000 Reis Treasury Bill
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