Catalog
4 Annas WW II Cash Coupon
| Issuer | Palitana State |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Green vignette of Thakor Shri Bahadursinghji at center, with black text inscription across the top of the note. The overall design is spare and typographic in character, consistent with wartime emergency issue production. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed on tan pressboard, the reverse carries the denomination value in large green Gujarati script characters centrally placed, with a black serial number printed vertically at right and a small floral ornament below. A brief inscription in Gujarati script appears at left. |
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| Comments |
Palitana was a princely state in the Kathiawar region of what is now Gujarat, and like dozens of other small Indian states during the Second World War, it resorted to issuing emergency fractional coupons when coin shortages became acute. The wartime demand for metals stripped small-denomination coinage from circulation across the subcontinent, forcing local authorities — some with very limited administrative infrastructure — to paper over the gap.
Pressboard rather than proper banknote paper points to genuinely improvised production. These were not printed by a security press.