Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
10 Shillings Emergency issue, Series A
| Issuer | Government of Gibraltar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Shillings (1/2) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Plain cream note of typeset design, bearing the legend "The Government of Gibraltar" in bold blackletter type at centre, followed by the legal tender declaration in italic script, with the denomination "10/- (Diez Chelines.)" at upper left and the date "Gibraltar, 6th August, 1914" at upper centre. Serial number appears twice in the upper corners within Series A prefix, and the Colonial Treasurer's manuscript signature is placed to the right, above the printed title. A bona nota clause in small roman type occupies the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is blank, without any printed design, lettering, or ornamentation. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Gibraltar's 1914 emergency currency came out of the same administrative scramble that hit British territories worldwide at the outbreak of war — the sudden hoarding and disappearance of coin from circulation forced colonial governments to produce paper substitutes almost overnight. The Gibraltar issue was authorized under emergency powers with minimal preparation time, which shows in the Series A designation: this was a first-run stopgap, not a planned addition to a mature currency system.
Surviving examples are genuinely rare. The wartime conditions under which these notes circulated — a busy naval garrison, constant troop movement, and no particular incentive to preserve low-denomination paper — were not kind to the physical material.