Catalog
20 Shillings With Arabic numerals and text
| Issuer | Banki Kuu ya Kenya / Central Bank of Kenya |
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| Year | 1966-1968 |
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| Currency | Shilling (1966-date) |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in three-quarter right-facing bust at left, with the national arms of Kenya at centre. The design incorporates guilloche underprint work typical of the period, with bilingual inscriptions in English and Swahili flanking the central vignette. |
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| Reverse lettering | ٢٠ 20 TWENTY SHILLINGS (Translation: 20) |
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| Comments |
Kenya's first banknote series, issued after the East African Currency Board was wound down, required a clean break from the shared regional currency infrastructure. The Central Bank of Kenya had only been established in 1966, and these early notes were ordered from Bradbury Wilkinson almost immediately — the Arabic numeral series was a deliberate design choice to serve Kenya's Muslim coastal population alongside the general public, distinguishing it from the parallel issue using standard Western numerals only.
Barawski served as the bank's first Governor. The short issue window of roughly two years before the 1969 series superseded it keeps surviving circulated examples genuinely uncommon.