A collection is normally identified as a set of goods, linked to a theme, which can vary in size, may have been started by one or several people and which might have been created for a variety of reasons.
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2500 reis - 20/03/1877 |
It is rare for a collection to have a central theme that begins with its origins and goes right to the end; it is also rare for a collection to possess all, or almost all, the objects that are part of it and which manages to inform the public of the evolution it has undergone. And why is that? Because often several collectors have formed the set, each with their own criteria, or worse still, with no criteria at all. How often do we find more an “agglomerate” of objects than a collection in the true sense of the word. |
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How often in private museums or museum houses do we find a huge number of items with no connection, or central theme, to give them meaning.
The spirit of the collector is usually innate. The collector has selective criteria, has a goal and manages to give a full meaning to the collection. In other words, there is a central theme in which the evolution of the goods that constitute the theme or the story that the collector hopes to tell succeed in having the desired effect on the public. |
1000 reis - 01/10/1867 |
Alberto Correia de Almeida, administrator of the António Cupertino de Miranda Foundation for forty years, fits into this description of collector.
When he acquired an old twenty-escudo note at the age of eighteen, our administrator could never have imagined that he would succeed in gathering the most complete set of fiat documents in the country, the core of which consists of Portuguese banknotes (Continental Portugal and former colonies) of all the plates and some of all the variants of dates and values. This unique set is joined by Royal Treasury bills, emergency money, shares, lotteries, stamped paper, cheques, drafts and files.
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5 rupias - 01/12/1896 |
2500 reis - 02/01/1908 |
5000 reis - 02/01/1908 |
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It might be said that he spent his entire life devoted to this passion, living a day-to-day existence in which persistence, the spirit to search, select, and constantly improve the examples prevailed. In particular, he focused on organising a set in which the least important examples were put aside, either because they were an irrelevant detail for the public or because they were tests or trials of unissued notes, in order to make the collection more attractive to the visitor who comes into contact with the theme for the first time.
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1000 reis - 20/02/1906 |
The Paper Money Museum traces the evolution of the various documents that represent money, in its most varied forms.
From the first to the last banknote, cheque or share, we can see the technical evolution of the valuables, or even the political context in which they were issued and to which the theme of the document itself is connected. |
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When the Foundation reopened its doors, after being closed for ten years whilst it remade its assets after having almost completely lost them during the 1974 revolution, Alberto Correia de Almeida transferred his small, but already carefully chosen collection to the Foundation.
Day after day, he managed to find examples, in Portugal and mainly abroad, enabling him to constitute what could be called a true state collection and which constitutes the Paper Money Museum.
