EPISODE · Apr 12, 2026 · 13 MIN
Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925
from HistMuse · host HistMuse
Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925: The Forgery That Broke a Nation1925. A 28-year-old con artist named Alves dos Reis conned Britain's top printer into making genuine Portuguese banknotes. Not counterfeits—the real thing. 100 million escudos worth.Using forged contracts, Reis had Waterlow & Sons print 200,000 identical 500-escudo Vasco da Gama notes. He flooded Portugal's economy with them. Chaos erupted.Bank runs. Currency collapse. The First Republic fell. Dictatorship rose.HistMuse uncovers the audacious scam that changed Portugal forever.
What this episode covers
Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925: The Forgery That Broke a Nation1925. A 28-year-old con artist named Alves dos Reis conned Britain's top printer into making genuine Portuguese banknotes. Not counterfeits—the real thing. 100 million escudos worth.Using forged contracts, Reis had Waterlow & Sons print 200,000 identical 500-escudo Vasco da Gama notes. He flooded Portugal's economy with them. Chaos erupted.Bank runs. Currency collapse. The First Republic fell. Dictatorship rose.HistMuse uncovers the audacious scam that changed Portugal forever.
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Portuguese Bank Note Crisis of 1925
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