20 Rials

The Yemen Arab Republic's early banknote series presented an immediate logistical problem: the country had no printing infrastructure of its own, and the newly established Central Bank, created in 1971, needed a credible currency fast. Bradbury Wilkinson, by then one of the most experienced security printers in the world, had handled similar commissions across the decolonizing world for decades.

P#9 is the first 20 Rial denomination issued under the Central Bank — prior issues came from the Yemen Currency Board. A single watermark for security, nothing more sophisticated, which was unremarkable for the region at that date.