Zambia's first banknote series launched at independence in 1964 using kwacha denominations, but the 1968 dated notes represent a second distinct issue — the Bank of Zambia had accumulated enough operational experience by then to refine the series, and Thomas De La Rue's London facility handled the contract throughout this period. The kwacha itself replaced the Rhodesia and Nyasaland pound at par with the pound sterling, then decimalised internally at 100 ngwee to the kwacha.
Pick 8 is among the scarcer denominations from this issue. The 1968 series was superseded relatively quickly as Zambia's copper-dependent economy lurched through the commodity price collapses of the early 1970s, compressing the note's effective circulation window.
Zambia's first banknote series launched at independence in 1964 using kwacha denominations, but the 1968 dated notes represent a second distinct issue — the Bank of Zambia had accumulated enough operational experience by then to refine the series, and Thomas De La Rue's London facility handled the contract throughout this period. The kwacha itself replaced the Rhodesia and Nyasaland pound at par with the pound sterling, then decimalised internally at 100 ngwee to the kwacha.
Pick 8 is among the scarcer denominations from this issue. The 1968 series was superseded relatively quickly as Zambia's copper-dependent economy lurched through the commodity price collapses of the early 1970s, compressing the note's effective circulation window.