Catalog
50 Rupees
| Issuer | Government of Mauritius |
|---|---|
| Year | 1876 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | The note is divided into a counterfoil stub at left and the main body at right. At upper centre, the denomination numeral '50' appears within an ornate vignette flanked by the bold title 'THE GOVERNMENT OF MAURITIUS' and the value 'FIFTY RUPEES' inscribed above and below. A coat of arms is present at upper centre of the main body, with handwritten date, serial number, and manuscript signatures of issuing officials appearing in the lower portion. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse is plain and unprinted. |
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| Comments |
The Government of Mauritius issued paper currency directly — not through a colonial bank — for much of the nineteenth century, making these notes administratively distinct from contemporaneous British colonial issues elsewhere. The 1876 series came during a period when the island's sugar economy was under serious stress from falling world prices, and small-denomination government notes were essential for day-to-day commerce that coin supplies could not reliably support.
P#15 is among the rarest of the series. No intact circulated example is reliably documented in the major auction records, which suggests either destruction during periodic redemptions or extremely tight original issue numbers.