10 Shillings Upington Border Scouts

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.