The Union Bank of Burma was established in 1952 as the country's central bank following independence, replacing the Currency Board arrangements that had carried over from the British colonial period. This 100 Rupee note belongs to the first substantive domestic currency series issued under that new institution — a deliberate assertion of banking authority at a moment when Burma was simultaneously nationalizing key industries and navigating serious internal insurgencies that made normal economic life difficult in large parts of the country.
Thomas De La Rue handled printing throughout this series. The rupee denomination itself was short-lived; Burma decimalized and redenominated in Kyats in 1952–1953, and the transition overlap means some of these higher-value rupee notes saw limited active circulation before the new unit took over.
The Union Bank of Burma was established in 1952 as the country's central bank following independence, replacing the Currency Board arrangements that had carried over from the British colonial period. This 100 Rupee note belongs to the first substantive domestic currency series issued under that new institution — a deliberate assertion of banking authority at a moment when Burma was simultaneously nationalizing key industries and navigating serious internal insurgencies that made normal economic life difficult in large parts of the country.
Thomas De La Rue handled printing throughout this series. The rupee denomination itself was short-lived; Burma decimalized and redenominated in Kyats in 1952–1953, and the transition overlap means some of these higher-value rupee notes saw limited active circulation before the new unit took over.