By Matt Quinn, Assistant Director of Currency
Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio is
pleased to present a rare Angola Pick 54 1920 dated 50 Escudos note in our
upcoming January auction to be held in conjunction with the New York
International Numismatic Convention. The very large format note is among the
most important offerings in the sale and is one we have never seen before. It
is from the "Porto" series of 1920 where the denominations are
interestingly the lowly 10, 20, 50 Centavos and then this high 50 Escudos
denomination. Angola was one of the first Portuguese overseas territories to
have notes circulating under the Banco Nacional Ultramarino, an institution
established during 1864 in Lisbon. Most notes of this issuer were produced by London
printing companies making this Portuguese printed type all the more important.
The note displays the bank name
in large arched lettering at center with large "50" counters at the
corners in dark blue and with light blue-green under-printing. The back design is
brown with light orange under-prints and features a central vignette of a lake
and trees within a vertically oriented oval at center with ornate birds
flanking. The note retains nice overall body at the central left and right; the
technical grade of Very Good is due to tape removal at the margins and
vertically at center. Some thinning has resulted from the tape removal along
with splits. These drawbacks however are of little consequence when considering
the rarity, which we believe to be in the realm of two to three known. This
item will certainly be a highlight in any collection it enters.
No comments:
Post a Comment