Catalog
5 Afghanis
| Issuer | Bank of Afghanistan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939 |
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| Currency | First afghani (1925-2003) |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of King Muhammad Zahir Shah in an oval vignette at right, rendered in intaglio against a green guilloche underprint. The Afghan national emblem appears at upper centre, flanked by the bank title in Dari script along the top border. The denomination numeral '5' is printed in red at lower left and lower right, with the date in the Afghan calendar (1318) and two manuscript signatures appearing across the lower half of the note. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | د افغانستان بانک 5 AFGHANIS ۵ افغانیه |
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| Comments |
Bradbury Wilkinson printed this note for Afghanistan at a moment when the country was actively modernizing its banking infrastructure under Mohammed Zahir Shah. The 1939 date places production on the eve of the Second World War — a period when BW's New Malden facility was about to pivot heavily toward wartime security printing, making Afghan commissions like this one a lower priority that was completed just in time.
Pick 22 is among the more frequently encountered notes from this pre-war Afghan series, but examples with clean folds are less common than catalog frequency suggests, likely due to the harsh handling conditions of rural Afghan circulation.