1 Pound

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.