50 Perpera

Montenegro issued this note through the Glavna Državna Blagajna — the Main State Treasury, not a central bank — in 1914, just as the kingdom was being pulled into the First World War alongside Serbia. The treasury notes of this series were emergency fiscal instruments, produced under conditions that made sophisticated security printing impossible. The control stamp was essentially the only authentication mechanism, which made counterfeiting a genuine concern from the outset.

Montenegro was overrun by Austro-Hungarian forces in early 1916, and much of the circulating paper currency was either destroyed, confiscated, or simply abandoned. Surviving examples from this issue that show actual circulation wear carry that collapse in their condition.