1 Shilling

Cyprus was under British administration from 1878 and formally annexed as a Crown Colony in 1914. This 1920 shilling note was issued under the Government of Cyprus rather than through a commercial bank — a deliberate choice that kept paper money issuance directly in colonial hands, with no intermediary institution absorbing the risk or the profit.

De La Rue's involvement here is unremarkable for the period; they held a near-monopoly on British colonial currency printing. What is worth noting is that the P#14 series represents early small-denomination government paper for the island, issued partly to ease a chronic shortage of coin in circulation following the disruptions of the First World War.