Catalog
25 Cents Treasury Department
| Issuer | Treasury of Liberia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1880 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | An oval vignette at upper centre portrays a sailing ship at sea with a palm tree to the right. The denomination TWENTY-FIVE CENTS is printed vertically in large letters along both the left and right margins. The body text, rendered in a combination of script and letterpress, carries the promise to pay to bearer on demand at the Treasury Department, with Monrovia named as the issuing place and a manuscript date completing the lower portion. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA RECEIVABLE FOR DUTIES ON DEMAND AT THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT THE TREASURER OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA WILL PAY TO BEARER TWENTY-FIVE CENTS TWENTY-FIVE CENTS |
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| Comments |
Liberia's Treasury issued fractional currency in the 1880s out of necessity — the country had no functioning central bank and chronic coin shortages made small-denomination paper an awkward but unavoidable stopgap. The Treasury Department acted as its own monetary authority for much of the nineteenth century, issuing notes directly rather than through any chartered institution.
No Pick number has been assigned, which typically signals either extreme rarity or that cataloging relied on a single known specimen. Liberian paper from this period survives in very small numbers; the combination of tropical climate, political instability, and limited original print runs saw to that.