1 Pound - British Military Authority

The British Military Authority currency was introduced ahead of the Allied landings in North Africa and later Italy, designed specifically to prevent occupying forces from using local civilian currencies and destabilizing already fragile wartime economies. The BMA notes were also a firewall against the black market — by controlling the money supply in liberated territories, the authorities could theoretically limit profiteering and currency manipulation by both civilians and their own troops.

Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London under wartime security conditions. The same basic design family circulated across multiple theatres, which occasionally causes confusion in attribution — the P#M6 designation distinguishes this from visually similar BMA issues intended for other regions.