10 Shillings / 12 Francs

Guernsey's bilingual denomination — ten shillings and twelve francs simultaneously — reflects the island's peculiar monetary position in 1914: legally British, but with a local franc-based accounting tradition that persisted in commerce long after the franc had ceased to be official tender. The dual-denomination format was a practical concession to a population that still priced goods in both systems.

Perkins, Bacon had been engraving security printing for colonial and island authorities since the early nineteenth century, and their work for Guernsey followed the same intaglio discipline used for postage stamps. The emergency circumstances of August 1914 drove the States to issue paper currency almost immediately after war was declared — coin hoarding had stripped small change from circulation within weeks.