2 Rupees 8 Annas 2.5 Rupees

The 2 Rupees 8 Annas denomination — effectively 2½ Rupees — was issued under the Paper Currency Act as a wartime measure, introduced to address the severe coin shortage that gripped British India during the First World War. Silver was being hoarded and melted, and small-denomination notes filled the gap left by disappearing coinage. Gubbay served as Controller of Currency, and his signature appears on notes from this period as the authorizing official rather than a bank governor, since India had no central bank until 1935.

The fractional denomination in annas is the detail worth noting: sixteen annas to the rupee meant 8 annas was exactly half, making this an unusual hybrid expressed in both decimal and pre-decimal terms simultaneously.