Catalog
5 Shillings - King George V
| Issuer | Government of Cyprus |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917-1918 |
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| Printer | De La Rue (Thomas de la Rue; Thomas De La Rue & Co.; TDLR), London, United Kingdom (1821-date) |
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| Obverse description | Brown on blue and grey underprint, with a central oval portrait vignette of King George V flanked by the serial number repeated at upper left and upper right. The denomination is rendered in three scripts — Greek (ΠΕΝΤΕ ΣΕΛΙΝΙΑ), English (FIVE SHILLINGS), and Arabic — with the issuing authority inscribed in two lines below the vignette. The date, Commissioner of Currency signature, and the printer's imprint of Thomas De La Rue & Co. Ltd., London appear along the lower margin. |
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| Obverse lettering | ΠΕΝΤΕ ΣΕΛΙΝΙΑ FIVE SHILLINGS ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CYPRUS COMMISSIONER OF CURRENCY |
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| Comments |
Cyprus was under British administration from 1878, but the First World War created acute pressure on small-denomination coinage across the empire — metal was needed for munitions, and subsidiary coins vanished from circulation almost immediately after 1914. This note, along with the other low-denomination issues of the same period, was a direct response to that shortage rather than any organic development of Cypriot monetary infrastructure.
De La Rue printed the series in London, which was standard for Crown Colony issues of this period. Pick 7 is among the earlier emergency-style fractional notes produced for the island, and surviving examples in any condition are genuinely uncommon — the small format and low face value meant heavy handling and poor survival rates.