Catalog
50 Afghanis
| Issuer | Bank of Afghanistan (Da Afghanistan Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1961 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Portrait vignette of King Mohammad Zahir Shah at left, rendered in intaglio against a light guilloche underprint in green and pink tones. The bank title in Dari script appears across the top, with the denomination '50' at lower left and Afghan state arms at centre. Three manuscript signatures of bank officials appear below the central inscription, with a serial number in green at bottom. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Portrait watermark of King Mohammad Zahir Shah embedded in the paper |
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| Comments |
De La Rue printed this series for Afghanistan through the late 1950s and into the 1960s, a period when the Daoud Khan government was actively courting both Soviet and American aid simultaneously — a foreign policy balancing act that kept Kabul diplomatically solvent even as its currency remained structurally dependent on foreign printing contracts. The 1961 date places this note at the tail end of that equilibrium, just before the 1963 constitutional reforms that would eventually reshape the country's banking institutions.
Pick 39 is one of the more commonly encountered Afghan notes from this era in collector holdings, though circulated examples frequently show significant horizontal fold damage along the center crease — a known characteristic of this format in active use.