Catalog
1 Pound
| Issuer | Government of St. Helena |
|---|---|
| Year | 1981 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Pound |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Government of St. Helena £1 Promise to pay bearer on demand the sum of ONE POUND £1 CURRENCY COMMISSIONERS |
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| Protection description | Queen Elizabeth II portrait watermark, visible when held to light |
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| Comments |
St. Helena's 1981 pound issue came at a peculiar administrative moment — the island had just seen its constitutional status redefined under the British Nationality Act of 1981, which stripped most St. Helenians of their right of abode in the United Kingdom. The government's continued issuance of its own sterling-denominated notes carried an odd resonance given that the people carrying them had simultaneously lost full British citizenship.
De La Rue printed the series, as they had done for St. Helena going back decades. The watermark remains the primary security feature — modest by the standards of what De La Rue was producing for larger territories at the time, but adequate for an island with a population then under 5,500.