10 Perpera

Montenegro's 1914 mobilization left the government desperately short of hard currency. The Glavna Državna Blagajna issued this series not through a central bank — Montenegro had none — but directly through the state treasury, an arrangement that blurred the line between fiscal note and banknote in ways that would complicate post-war redemption claims when the country was absorbed into Yugoslavia in 1918.

The print run of over twelve million was substantial for a nation with a population under 300,000. Much of that volume was intended to fund wartime expenditure rather than ordinary commerce, and a significant portion never returned through normal redemption channels.

M. Dival's engraver credit appears in the plate margins — a name associated with Serbian printing contracts of the period, though the precise press responsible for this issue has not been firmly established in the literature.