Description and research notes
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.
The 50 Mil Réis embodied the young Republic’s drive to project prestige after the fall of the monarchy. Its monumental allegory—Commerce and Industry flanking the national arms—was conceived as wartime inflation eroded confidence in paper currency. Surviving specimens are exceedingly rare; the PMG census records only two graded examples of Pick 110s worldwide.
This note pairs with the front progressive proof (Pick 110pp1) also in this collection, together forming a complete archival narrative from first engraving test to approved production plate. Few institutions, let alone private collectors, hold both. The specimen stands as Portugal’s last great multi-color Réis note—an artifact of national ambition translated into London intaglio during the brief, idealistic years of the First Republic.