Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Rupie
| Issuer | Kaiserliches Gouvernement von Deutsch-Ostafrika |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#11 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain text layout within a single-rule rectangular border. The serial number appears twice — at the top and bottom of the note. Three blocks of text are arranged vertically: a guarantee clause in German stating that the note's value is fully deposited with the Imperial Government of German East Africa, a parallel guarantee clause in Swahili, and an anti-counterfeiting warning in German threatening penal servitude of not less than two years. A printer's stamp reading 'DEUTSCH-OSTAFRIKANISCHE ZEITUNG G.M.B.H. DARESSALAM' is impressed in the lower left corner. The letter 'F' appears on both left and right margins as a series designator. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | P#11a - thick and stiff cream paper series E P#11b(1) - thin cream paper series E P#11b(2) - thin cream paper series F both series letters on back at same height P#11b(3) - thin cream paper series F series letters on back at left top and right bottom Remark: almost all of these notes were stamped with a large "Z"; not overprinted notes are extremely rare P#11b(4) - thin cream paper series G series letters on back at left top and right bottom |
| Comments |
By 1915, the British naval blockade had completely severed German East Africa from Europe, forcing the colonial government to improvise its own currency from whatever materials were available locally. The Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung G.m.b.H. — a newspaper printer, not a security press — was pressed into service in Dar es Salaam, producing notes on whatever paper could be sourced in a surrounded colony at war.
The result is technically crude by any metropolitan standard, which is precisely what makes the series historically striking. Forgery resistance was minimal; the authorities had neither the equipment nor the time for sophisticated intaglio work. Governor Schnee's administration signed off on a design that was, above all, fast to produce.
Surviving examples frequently show uneven ink distribution and rough perforations — artifacts of newspaper press production, not deterioration.