500 Afghanis

The Bank of Afghanistan's reliance on Thomas De La Rue throughout the 1960s reflects a deliberate policy of outside production — Afghanistan had no domestic banknote printing capability, and London-printed issues were considered more resistant to local counterfeiting than anything that could be reproduced regionally. The 1967 series of which this 500 Afghanis is a part was issued under relatively stable monetary conditions, before the political turbulence of the 1970s severely disrupted currency management.

Pick 45 is not a scarce note in circulated grades, but high-grade examples are harder to source than the catalog frequency suggests — the 500 Afghani denomination saw genuine transactional use rather than hoarding.