10 Emalangeni

Swaziland's Central Bank was established only in 1974, replacing the Monetary Authority that had managed the rand-pegged lilangeni since independence. By the time this series was issued, the lilangeni had been fully decoupled from the rand in all but a fixed parity arrangement under the Common Monetary Area — meaning the note circulated at par with South African currency while remaining legally distinct from it. That parity held, but it constrained Swazi monetary policy almost entirely.

Two signature combinations exist for P#20, reflecting a change in the Finance Minister's position during the issue window. The Dlamini/Oliver pairing precedes Dlamini/Nxumalo, making the later signature the more commonly encountered of the two.