Catalog
1 Rupie
| Issuer | Kaiserliches Gouvernement von Deutsch-Ostafrika |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Rupee |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Imperial eagle vignette at upper left, with serial letter prefix and number. Text reading "Kraft besonderer Ermächtigung" appears below the date at left, with the countersignature inscription "In Vollmacht A. Frühling" at right. Serial letter indicators K and L appear on the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Variants | P#16a(1) - yellow-brown paper series K (left and right at same height on back) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending P#16a(2) - yellow-brown paper series K (left and right at same height on back) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending, except for the fourth one from below, which is ascending P#16a(3) - yellow-brown paper series K (left high, right below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending P#16a(4) - yellow-brown paper series K (left high, right below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending, except for the fourth one from below, which is ascending P#16a(5) - yellow-brown paper series K (left high, center below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending P#16a(6) - yellow-brown paper series K (left high, center below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending, except for the fourth one from below, which is ascending P#16b(1) - brown wrapping paper series K (left high, center below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending P#16b(2) - brown wrapping paper series K (left high, center below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending, except for the fourth one from below, which is ascending P#16b(3) - brown wrapping paper series L (left high, center below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending P#16b(4) - brown wrapping paper series L (left high, center below) diagonals in the spheres in right margin descending, except for the fourth one from below, which is ascending |
| Comments |
Deutsch-Ostafrika's 1915 paper issues were born out of necessity. When the war severed the territory from Germany and British naval blockades made resupply impossible, Governor Heinrich Schnee's administration turned to locally produced emergency currency. The colony's isolation was nearly total — no metropolitan printing house, no security paper stocks, no established infrastructure for note production. What resulted was a series of notes improvised under genuine wartime constraint.
P#16 is part of that improvised output, printed in Dar es Salaam under conditions that varied batch to batch. Signatures, serial number placement, and paper quality differ across surviving examples — not errors, but the natural product of emergency production. Schnee himself signed some issues personally.