5 Dinars

Kuwait gained full independence from Britain in June 1961, and the Currency Board was established almost immediately to replace the Gulf rupee with a national currency. This note is from that inaugural series — Kuwait's first sovereign paper money, issued the same year the state formally came into existence.

Bradbury Wilkinson's involvement was typical of newly independent Gulf states at the time; the New Malden facility handled security printing for several emerging nations in the 1960s. The watermark is the sole mechanical security feature, modest by later standards but consistent with printing norms for the period.

The Currency Board itself was a short-lived institution, superseded by the Central Bank of Kuwait in 1969.