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 Upington Border Scouts
| Issuer | Border Scouts, Upington |
|---|---|
| Year | 1902 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | A primitive emergency issue on undyed silk fabric, hand-completed in manuscript. At upper centre, a stamped letterpress inscription reads "ISSUED BY PAYMASTER B.S. UPINGTON" with a handwritten date at upper right. To the left, a circular regimental seal stamp bears the legend "BORDER SCOUTS UPINGTON" surrounding a vignette of a running animal beneath a crown. The promise to pay text, denomination "£ - 10 -" and two manuscript signatures appear in ink in the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ISSUED BY PAYMASTER B.S. UPINGTON Pay to bearer The sum of (Ten shillings) for pay £ - 10 - |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
One of the more unusual emergency issues of the Anglo-Boer War period, this note was produced by the Border Scouts — a locally raised colonial unit operating out of Upington in the northern Cape — when conventional currency became scarce in that remote theatre of operations. Silk was used as the substrate almost certainly because paper was unavailable locally, a practical decision that now makes these among the most physically distinctive wartime issues from any belligerent in the conflict.
Survival rate is extremely low. Silk does not age gracefully under circulation stress, and Upington's desert climate was not kind to stored materials.