In your article on Alves Reis, you missed one very important thing he used his notes to purchase. He bought up stock shares in the Bank of Portugal in an effort to gain a controlling interest. (He came close, too.) The reason was because under Portuguese law ONLY the Bank of Portugal could bring charges of counterfeiting against someone. If he had controlling interest, he would have been in a position to stop any investigations into his "extra" banknotes.

As a side note, a few months ago one of his notes did appear on eBay. It was slabbed by PMG as a genuine Bank of Portugal note and not as an Reis copy.

When Reis had his notes printed he had not completely worked out the bank's serial numbering system. According to information in Murray Bloom's book, Portugal never used a double vowel in the serial number prefix, and the prefix letters never went past AN. The note in the PMG holder had an AU prefix.

I would have loved to have added the note to my collection, but with a grade Gem Uncirculated 66 and EPQ (Exceptional Paper Quality) and a price of $49,000 I had to pass.

I would like to have one of his notes someday but after the copies were discovered the bank actively withdrew the notes from circulation so today even the genuine notes are not cheap.