25 South Sudanese Pounds

South Sudan's independence on 9 July 2011 made it the world's newest country at the time, and the South Sudanese pound series — of which this is a part — had to be designed, printed, and ready for circulation within an extraordinarily compressed timeframe. Thomas De La Rue had prior experience printing for newly independent African states, which almost certainly explains the contract. The notes were introduced on 18 July 2011, just nine days after independence was formally declared.

P#8 is among the higher denominations in the inaugural series. Security provision is relatively modest for the period — watermark and thread only, with no optically variable ink — a cost-driven decision consistent with a government standing up a central bank from scratch.