100 Pounds

Bradbury Wilkinson printed this series at their New Malden works under contract to the National Bank of Egypt, an arrangement that had roots going back decades — Egypt's high-denomination notes had long been produced abroad, a structural dependency that sat uncomfortably with the nationalist politics building through the late 1940s. Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, whose signature appears on issues through 1950, was a British Treasury official serving as financial adviser to the NBE, a posting that itself reflected how thoroughly British interests remained embedded in Egyptian monetary administration even after nominal independence.

The 100-pound note was not a note ordinary Egyptians encountered. At that denomination, circulation was narrow — largely interbank settlement and large commercial transactions.