1 Ngultrum

Bhutan's first banknotes — this series among them — were produced by De La Rue under an arrangement that placed considerable design authority with the printer, as the Bank of Bhutan had no prior template to work from. The institution itself was only established in 1968, making this early 1980s issue part of a very short issuing history.

The single ngultrum sat at parity with the Indian rupee, a fixed rate that has held since the series was introduced. That peg made low-denomination notes like this one genuinely functional in cross-border trade with India, not merely symbolic paper.