5 Emalangeni

The Monetary Authority of Swaziland was a transitional institution — Swaziland established its own currency, the lilangeni, only in 1974, pegging it at par to the South African rand within the Common Monetary Area. This 5 Emalangeni (Pick 3) is among the first notes issued under that arrangement, printed by De La Rue before the full central banking infrastructure was in place. R.P. Stephens, the senior signatory, was an appointee of the Monetary Authority rather than a governor in the conventional sense — the country's central bank, the Central Bank of Swaziland, would not be established until 1979.