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2 Shillings
| Issuer | Government of Cyprus |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Shillings (1/10) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central oval vignette with a portrait of King George V in profile, framed by a sunburst guilloche rosette and flanked by the bold lettering GOVERNMENT OF CYPRUS. The denomination 2/s appears at lower left, with the date 1st March 1920 and the title COMMISSIONER OF CURRENCY below centre. Trilingual inscriptions appear across the note in English, Greek, and Arabic, with the printer's imprint THOS. DE LA RUE & CO LTD LONDON at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | TWO SHILLINGS ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CYPRUS ΔΥΟ ΣΕΛΙΝΙΑ ايكى شلين 2/s 1st March 1920 COMMISSIONER OF CURRENCY THOS. DE LA RUE & CO LTD LONDON |
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| Comments |
Cyprus was a British protectorate from 1878 and a formal Crown Colony from 1925, but in 1920 it occupied an awkward constitutional middle ground — and its currency reflected that. The Government of Cyprus issued its own treasury notes rather than relying on any colonial currency board, a relatively unusual arrangement that gave local administration direct control over small-denomination paper.
De La Rue had held the Cyprus contract for years by this point. The 2 Shilling denomination served the low end of the paper money range, filling a gap between coin and higher-value notes in an island economy still heavily dependent on agricultural trade.