Description and research notes
Specimen of the 1000 Cruzeiros printed by Thomas De La Rue & Company, London, bearing red SPECIMEN overprint, punch cancellations, and De La Rue’s oval control marks. The note is labeled Estampa 2A / Série 791A with zero serials, confirming its archival or approval status rather than an issued piece.
The 1963 series was produced near the end of Brazil’s first Cruzeiro era, when inflation prompted increasingly higher denominations. De La Rue’s involvement reflected the country’s reliance on British security printing during periods of rapid design turnover and monetary change. The engraving quality—fine portraiture, intricate guilloche, and tonal depth—illustrates De La Rue’s technical precision even as Brazil prepared to overhaul its note structure only a few years later.
Specimens such as this served multiple purposes: reference for bank archives, samples for central bank verification, and documentation within De La Rue’s production files. Surviving examples provide a clear visual record of plate states and color composition at a moment when Brazil’s currency design was shifting toward modernist simplicity under state control.