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20 Shillings / 1 Pound - George V
| Issuer | East African Currency Board |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Size | 140 x 85 mm |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of King George V in an oval intaglio vignette at upper right, facing left. The issuer title THE EAST AFRICAN CURRENCY BOARD arches across the top panel within an ornate guilloche border, with the denomination TWENTY SHILLINGS OR ONE POUND in large letterpress type at centre. Below the serial number panels, the denomination is repeated in Arabic and Gujarati scripts, followed by the legal tender clause and the place and date of issue at lower left, with three facsimile signatures of the Members of the East African Currency Board at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central oval vignette engraved with a lion walking through savanna landscape, flanked on each side by the numeral 20 within ornate geometric guilloche panels. The denomination TWENTY SHILLINGS OR ONE POUND appears in letterpress in banner panels at both the top and bottom of the design, with the corner numerals 20 repeated at all four corners against a finely patterned ochre-brown underprint. |
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| Comments |
The East African Currency Board was established in 1919 to provide a unified currency across British East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar — replacing the Indian rupee, which had circulated in the region since the late nineteenth century. The rupee's demonetization was politically contentious; the switch to a sterling-linked shilling system was partly a deliberate move to sever the economic ties that had bound East African commerce more closely to India than to London.
Pick 15 is among the earliest issues of the Board. De La Rue held the printing contract throughout the interwar period, and the 1921 date places this note in the very first years of the new monetary regime.