2 Shillings 6 Pence - British Armed Forces 3rd series

British Armed Forces Special Vouchers were a parallel currency — servicemen stationed overseas were paid in these rather than sterling to prevent local black markets from draining hard currency out of the British economy. The 3rd series, introduced in 1956, replaced the 2nd series partly in response to exactly that problem: widespread unauthorized exchange in occupied Germany and Cyprus had made earlier issues a liability.

De La Rue's security printing on this series is tighter than its predecessors, with more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting features reflecting lessons learned from BAFSV abuse cases documented through the early 1950s.