Catalog
1 Rupee
| Issuer | Government of Seychelles |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Plain paper note printed in black letterpress, bearing the issuer title at top and a promissory obligation in typeset text at centre, with the denomination R.1 — ONE RUPEE — R.1 set in bold display type. Serial number appears twice at upper left and upper right. A circular impressed official treasury stamp is visible at centre-left, and the note is completed by a manuscript signature of the Governor with title below at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Circular embossed official treasury seal impressed into the paper at centre. |
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| Comments |
The Government of Seychelles issued paper currency directly — not through a chartered bank — and this 1 Rupee from 1919 reflects that administrative arrangement, common among small British crown colonies that lacked the transaction volume to justify a full banking infrastructure. Gaston Humes served as Governor of Seychelles from 1918 to 1921, which tightly brackets the possible signing window for this note.
The impressed stamp as the sole security feature was already an antiquated choice by 1919, relying on physical paper compression rather than any printed device. Survivors in collectable condition are genuinely rare — the Seychelles population at the time was under 25,000, meaning total print runs were small and attrition was high in a humid, tropical island environment.