Catalog
20 Afghanis
| Issuer | Da Afghanistan Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1961 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of King Muhammad Zahir Shah in military uniform occupies the left half of the note, rendered in intaglio against a blue guilloche underprint. The bank title in Dari script appears across the top, with the numeral 20 in both Western and Eastern Arabic numerals flanking the vignette. Two facsimile signatures with their titles appear below the central text block, accompanied by the state emblem. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The central vignette presents a detailed engraved view of the Istiqlal (Independence) Monument in Kabul, a tall column rising above a landscaped plaza with surrounding low structures and trees. The bank name in Dari script is inscribed at the upper right, with the denomination numeral repeated at lower right in Eastern Arabic script. The note border is composed of repeating geometric and floral guilloche patterns in blue. |
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| Comments |
Da Afghanistan Bank's early note issues were produced almost entirely by Thomas De La Rue through the 1950s and into the 1960s, a relationship that reflected both the printer's dominance in Commonwealth and post-colonial central bank contracts and Afghanistan's own limited domestic printing capacity at the time. This 1961 issue falls within a politically stable window — the reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah — before the coups and currency dislocations that would progressively complicate Afghan monetary administration from the early 1970s onward.
The watermark is the sole mechanical security feature, which was not unusual for De La Rue's lower-denomination contracts of the period.