10 Shillings

Nigeria's first banknote series — this 10 Shillings among them — was issued on 1 July 1959, the date the Central Bank of Nigeria formally opened, though the notes carry a 1958 date reflecting when the designs were finalized and approved. The transition from West African Currency Board issues was politically charged: the WACB had served British colonial territories collectively, and Nigeria's decision to establish its own central bank ahead of independence in 1960 was a deliberate assertion of economic separation from that shared arrangement.

Waterlow & Sons had printed colonial currency across Africa for decades. They were absorbed by De La Rue in 1961, making this series among the final Nigerian commissions the firm completed under its own name before ceasing independent operation.