Catalog
5 Rupien
| Issuer | Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain design with text indicating either Daressalam or Tabora as the place of issue at left, with the inscription 'Kraft besonderer Ermächtigung' at lower left. Both authorizing signatures are applied by stamp rather than manuscript, a characteristic of this wartime emergency issue. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The bank monogram 'DOB' (Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank) appears in the upper right and lower left corners, rendered in an ornate interlaced style. The note bears the series letter F at left and right margins, with the serial number repeated at lower right. Three lines of bilingual text in German and Swahili occupy the central field, accompanied by an anti-counterfeiting warning in German at the foot of the note. A small printer's imprint cartouche is present at the lower centre. |
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| Comments |
By 1915, the naval blockade had severed German East Africa from its usual supply lines entirely. The Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank could no longer receive printed currency from Germany, forcing improvised local production — hence this note, printed by Buchdruckerei Tarimu in Tabora, a small inland press wholly unequipped for currency work. The result is crude by any professional standard, and the series is accordingly easy to spot as a wartime expedient rather than a planned issue.
Tabora served as the administrative and military hub for the colony's interior, and it was here that Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's guerrilla campaign kept Allied forces occupied until November 1918 — long after the armistice in Europe. These notes were circulating alongside that campaign.