50 Rupien

Printed under wartime siege conditions, this note was produced after the Allied naval blockade cut German East Africa off from outside supply lines entirely. The Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Druckerei was a commercial press in Dar es Salaam never intended for currency production, and it shows — the printing quality is noticeably cruder than the pre-war series produced in Germany.

Governor Heinrich Schnee authorized the emergency issues as the territory's economy strained under General Lettow-Vorbeck's extended guerrilla campaign. The paper itself was locally sourced, sometimes from whatever stock the printer had on hand, and composition varies between surviving examples. The 1915 series circulated alongside improvised Behelfsgeld well into 1916 before Dar es Salaam fell to British forces in September of that year.