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5 Piastres Siege of Khartoum
| Issuer | General Charles George Gordon (Governor-General of the Sudan) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1884 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Piastres |
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| Obverse description | Within a double-line rectangular border, a ruled frame at the top encloses a line of Arabic script, beneath which a semi-circular decorative element divides the upper panel from the central field. The body of the note is filled with multiple lines of handwritten Arabic text stating the denomination and terms of redemption from the Khartoum treasury. A circular green official stamp is applied to the lower left, with a handwritten signature at the bottom centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is otherwise plain, bearing a single oval handstamp applied in purple ink at the centre, enclosing faint Arabic script and a numerical or date inscription within its border. |
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| Comments |
Issued during the siege of Khartoum in 1884, this is among the rarest emergency issues in African numismatics. General Charles Gordon, commanding the besieged city, authorized the printing of paper currency to pay his garrison and sustain commerce inside the walls — a stop-gap measure as the siege tightened through the second half of the year. The Mahdist attribution is a cataloguing convention; these notes were actually issued under Gordon's authority, not Muhammad Ahmad's forces surrounding the city.
Khartoum fell on 26 January 1885. Survivors were few, and paper currency was not among the things anyone carried out.