2 Pounds

The Border Scouts were a colonial irregular unit raised during the Anglo-Boer War to police the Northern Cape frontier around Upington. When coin and conventional currency dried up in that remote district, the unit's paymaster resorted to issuing handwritten or locally produced obligations on whatever material was available — hence cloth rather than paper. Linen notes of this type were essentially IOUs backed by nothing more than the issuing officer's authority and the expectation of eventual reimbursement by the Crown.

Very few survive. The informality of production means each example is effectively unique in its manuscript details.