10 Perpera

Montenegro's Glavna Državna Blagajna — the Royal State Treasury — issued this note in 1914 as the country lurched into the First World War. The perpera had only existed as a currency since 1906, and the State Treasury's notes were always a stopgap instrument, filling the void left by the absence of a proper central bank. Printing in Cetinje rather than abroad was a political choice as much as a practical one, though it placed real limits on production quality and anti-counterfeiting sophistication.

The single security feature was an official stamp — applied by hand, which means unstamped examples exist and are considered fiscally invalid rather than errors.