Catalog
10 Litu
| Issuer | Lietuvos Bankas (Bank of Lithuania) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Blue, purple, and brown intaglio print on a guilloche underprint. A vignette of a raftsman appears at right, with a stylized mounted knight at left. Denomination numerals and issuer inscriptions are arranged around the central field, with gold standard text across the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Brown and orange on a guilloche underprint in Art Nouveau style. Two circular portrait vignettes of women in traditional costume are set symmetrically at left and right, flanking a large central numeral "10" within an ornate cartouche. Elaborate foliate and floral border designs fill the corners and margins, with the denomination in full text below the central numeral. |
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| Comments |
Lithuania's first banknote series came out of a country that had only formally established its central bank in 1922, the same year this note was issued. A. Haase in Prague was a logical choice — Czech printing firms were supplying paper currency to several newly independent states scrambling to establish monetary infrastructure after the collapse of the Russian and German empires.
The Litas itself replaced the transitional Ostmark and Auksinas, currencies that had circulated under German occupation and in the immediate postwar period. Getting a credible, professionally printed series into circulation quickly was a political necessity, not just a logistical one.