2 Shillings 6 Pence - British Military Authority

The British Military Authority notes were introduced for use by Allied forces in territories liberated or occupied during and after the Second World War, specifically to prevent local currency from being drained by military spending and to control black market exchange. The 2/6 denomination is the fractional oddity of the series — practical for everyday transactions among troops, awkward enough that it saw heavier use than the pound denominations and survived in collectible condition far less often.

De La Rue printed the series in London under wartime conditions, with distribution spanning theatres as geographically scattered as Italy, the Middle East, and East Africa. The RM prefix in the Pick reference system reflects the distinct cataloguing of military issues separate from civilian emissions.