100 Scellini / 100 Somali Shillings

The Banca Nazionale Somala was established in 1960 following the merger of the former Trust Territory of Somalia with British Somaliland, and this 1966 series represented one of its earliest consolidated currency issues under a unified national framework. Thomas De La Rue handled production throughout the bank's formative years, a relationship typical of newly independent African states that lacked domestic printing infrastructure.

Pick 8 is notably scarcer in higher circulated grades than catalog frequency might suggest — Somalia's banking infrastructure outside Mogadishu was thin, and notes in provincial use absorbed considerable wear quickly.