Catalog
1.000 Rupees
| Issuer | Government of the East Africa Protectorate |
|---|---|
| Year | 1905 |
| Type | Pattern or trial banknote |
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| Obverse description | Uniface trial note in black on white paper, with an elaborate guilloche border framing the entire composition. The issuer's title 'THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE' is set within an ornate scalloped cartouche at the top centre, beneath which a promise-to-pay clause is rendered in copperplate script. The denomination 'ONE THOUSAND RUPEES' appears in bold letterpress at centre, flanked by numeral '1000' panels, with parallel inscriptions in Arabic and Gujarati scripts below; the place and date 'Mombasa, 1st September 1905' are printed in the lower central field, above a rectangular guilloche panel bearing the issuer's name, with a manuscript signature to the lower right above the legend 'FOR THE CURRENCY COMMISSIONERS'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of ONE THOUSAND RUPEES 1000 مائة روبية 1000 સ્ટર્લિંગ રૂપિયા Mombasa, 1st September 1905 FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE FOR THE CURRENCY COMMISSIONERS |
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| Comments |
The Government of the East Africa Protectorate issued this note at a moment when the territory's monetary arrangements were genuinely unsettled. The Indian rupee served as the standard currency across British East Africa well into the colonial period, and high-denomination notes like this one were instruments of trade finance and administrative transfer rather than everyday commerce — a 1,000 rupee note would have had little utility outside merchant houses in Mombasa or Nairobi.
Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London, as they did for the vast majority of British colonial issues of the period. P#1G implies this note sits within an early sequential series for the Protectorate, and surviving examples are extraordinarily rare — the denomination alone would have kept circulation numbers low, and formal redemption processes at the end of the Protectorate period in 1920 destroyed most of the remaining stock.
The East Africa Protectorate was dissolved and reconstituted as the Kenya Colony in 1920, at which point a new currency authority superseded these notes.