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Brazil (Inc. in London, England), 1909. 100 Pounds Sterling Specimen 5% Debenture Coupon Bond. Tram at top with image of cherub above.

Manaus has one of the world's most exotic locations: 1,500 km up the Amazon River, 3° south of the Equator, in the middle of the world's largest rain forest, inaccessible until 1972 by automobile and never reached by railroad. The city was a product of the 19th century rubber boom: foreigners flocked to the Equatorial region, grew fabulously rich and built a lavish jungle metropolis that compared architecturally and culturally with capitals in Europe. However, in the early 1900s rubber seeds were smuggled to Ceylon and boom turned to bust: exports slipped to one-third, the foreigners fled and the city fell into a half-century of stagnation. In 1965 the Brazilian government made Manaus a free port and today the avenues are lined with skyscrapers and duty-free shops selling Japanese cameras and automobiles. The city's name was written Manáos until 1937.