20 Rials

The Yemen Arab Republic's early banknotes were issued under considerable institutional pressure — the Central Bank of Yemen had only been established in 1971, replacing the Saudi Riyal-linked currency system that had prevailed through much of the imamate period. Bradbury Wilkinson, then still operating from New Malden, handled a significant share of British Commonwealth and Middle Eastern currency contracts in this period, and the Yemen series fell squarely within that commercial relationship.

Pick 14 is the first 20 Rial denomination issued by the republic's central bank, a denomination that would be reissued through several subsequent series as the country's economy expanded through the oil-transit years of the 1970s.