10 Shillings Aquarius - empty leaves

The "empty leaves" designation distinguishes this from the more common Aquarius issue in the same series, referring to a die variation in which the decorative foliage elements were struck without the finer interior detail — most likely a result of a working die that had not received its full hub transfer. Somaliland's coinage program has always operated at the margins: an unrecognized state issuing currency for a functional but diplomatically invisible economy, with production contracted to foreign mints under circumstances rarely documented in standard references.