Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Pound
| Issuer | Kingdom of Libya |
|---|---|
| Year | 1952 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 168 x 95 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Intaglio portrait of King Idris I in three-quarter left profile, wearing traditional Libyan dress and headcovering, positioned at left within an ornate multicolour guilloche frame; a palm tree vignette appears to his left and a decorative olive branch to the right. A central scalloped medallion contains a sprig of vegetation at lower centre, flanked by arabesque border ornaments, with the denomination numeral '1' at each corner and Arabic inscriptions above and below the central field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in steel-blue intaglio on a pale ground, the reverse is dominated by two large lobed guilloche rosettes flanking a central panel, all set within an elaborate arabesque border with interlacing geometric ornaments. The denomination 'ONE LIBYAN POUND' is inscribed in bold letterpress at centre, surmounted by 'KINGDOM OF LIBYA' and the legal tender clause, with the date '1ST JANUARY, 1952.' at the base of the central panel. Corner numerals '1' appear at each angle within decorative cartouches. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Libya's first national currency series was issued just months after independence in December 1951, making these notes among the earliest expressions of the newly unified kingdom — a federation of three former Italian colonial territories under Idris I. The Pound was introduced at parity with the pound sterling, a politically significant anchor given the country's heavy dependence on British and American financial support at the time.
Bradbury Wilkinson's work on this series is competent without being showy — the firm had a long history printing colonial and post-colonial issues for British-adjacent territories. Pick 16 is the 1 Pound value from the inaugural Libyan Currency Committee series, predating the establishment of the National Bank of Libya in 1955, which would supersede the Currency Committee and eventually issue its own notes.