5 Rupees

The Union Bank of Burma was established in 1952 as part of the newly independent country's effort to replace the Reserve Bank of India's residual authority over Burmese currency — this note belongs to the bank's first substantive issue series. Thomas De La Rue had printed Burmese currency through the colonial period and retained the contract into independence, a continuity that was pragmatic rather than sentimental given the acute shortage of printing infrastructure in postwar Rangoon.

The watermark is the sole security feature, which was typical for De La Rue's lower-denomination output for newly independent states in this period, where cost containment took precedence over elaborate anti-counterfeiting measures.