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20 Rials
| Issuer | Central Bank of Yemen |
|---|---|
| Year | 1971 |
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| Printer | Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856-1990) |
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| Obverse description | A central vignette presents the historic rock palace of Wadi Dahr, rendered in intaglio against a light guilloche underprint, positioned to the left of centre. Arabic inscriptions appear to the right, including the denomination in words and official banking authority text, with a manuscript signature below. The numeral '20' appears in the upper-left and lower-left corners, with a serial number running along the upper edge. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A panoramic cityscape vignette of Sanaa spans the full width of the note, rendered in fine line engraving in a blue-violet palette, with minarets, a domed mosque, and the surrounding mountain landscape visible across the composition. The denomination numeral '20' appears in each corner, with the issuer name arched across the top and the denomination in words along the lower border. A decorative guilloche border frames the entire design. |
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| Comments |
The Yemen Arab Republic's early banknote series presented an immediate logistical problem: the country had no printing infrastructure of its own, and the newly established Central Bank, created in 1971, needed a credible currency fast. Bradbury Wilkinson, by then one of the most experienced security printers in the world, had handled similar commissions across the decolonizing world for decades.
P#9 is the first 20 Rial denomination issued under the Central Bank — prior issues came from the Yemen Currency Board. A single watermark for security, nothing more sophisticated, which was unremarkable for the region at that date.