20 Shillings / 1 Pound - George VI India style serial

The East African Currency Board's wartime issues were printed under considerable pressure — De La Rue's London operations were actively contending with Luftwaffe bombing during 1940–41, and production priorities shifted repeatedly across the colonial currency portfolio. This 1942 note carries the "India style" serial designation, distinguishing it from earlier and later serial formats within the P#30 series — a collector distinction, not an official one, but a useful shorthand for separating die states.

The Board itself held no reserves of its own; the currency was backed by sterling held in London, making every note in circulation a direct obligation of the British Treasury during the war's most uncertain years.