I am researching about Portuguese and P. colonial banknotes, and one aspect of interest is knowing how many were emitted, and hopefully also to calculate how many is remaining (of course a rough estimation).

For some banknotes I have got the information of amouts that were emitted, but when I look at the serial numbers and prefixes, it does not compare well to the emitted amount.

One example is the 1000 escudos banknote from 1942. According to the portuguese national bank there were 6.66 million banknotes emitted. Serials begin with one or two letter prefixes followed by five numbers. For instance serial OS 14240.
If one follows this alphabeticaly this banknote should be way over the 6.66 million that were emitted. For every alphabetical round there should be 2.5 or 2.6 million banknotes emitted.

Can it be that the emission is not in an alphabetical and numerical order, or that there are gaps between prefixes? How do they do in other countries?

About estimating the surviving banknote amounts, I have heard that there should be a formula for a mathematical estimation. Do anybody know about that?

Dear bifrost,

While usually one thinks of a 'serial number' as being an ordinal number indicating the actual ordinal position of a particular note in the 'universe' of notes printed, many countries use a code in their numbers which is used as a protection against counterfeiting. That does not mean your note is either a counterfeit or an error. It just means that your note's actual ordinal position in the full range may not appear as the number shows.

If you knew the code [which I don't], you could analyse the serial number and determine:
1) that it is a genuine note, issued in a particular numbering range; and
2) its actual ordinal position in that range.

Portugal has long been known as using coded serial numbering. In fact, such a system was the only way a huge counterfeiting scheme was broken up in Portugal in the 1920's. For an entertaining read setting out this scam, see Murray Teigh Bloom's The Man Who Stole Portugal. It is the story of how Alves Reis managed to convince Waterlow & Sons to print millions of notes which were issued by his new commercial bank. I commend it to you.

The scam fell apart when clerks in the Banco do Portugal noticed that many new 500 [I can't remember if the unit was Escudos or Reis] notes had 'impossible' serial numbers, notes not officially issued by the Banco do Portugal.

The ensueing uproar caused the fall of the Government and the establishment of a 'dictatorship' that lasted until the 1970's.

You ask an interesting question; however, I do not know the exact answer to your question.

Jay in Garrison, TX

Thanks
I had not thought of that option. It explains a lot, and is a great relief. I was about to think that the numbers that I have of amounts issued could have been wrong.

For more modern issues though, there seems to be an alphabetical and numerical corespondense, but there I have also no problem with coresponding the issue amount and the de facto serials of the banknotes.

It seems that some of the colonies also follow this pattern.

I have heard about the scam you mention but do not know the details. I know that it had great repurcursions on the following banknote series. All banknotes with the printed name of Waterlow and sons, were burnt before being issued (100 escudos and up) and now only exists in the form of specimens.

I shall see if I can find the book as it would be an interesting read.

// Joakim