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5 Para Emergency Postage Stamp Currency
| Issuer | Serbia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in green, the face carries a vignette of King Peter I of Serbia accompanied by generals, all facing left toward a battlefield scene, with the denomination numeral and Cyrillic inscriptions arranged around the central image in a straightforward letterpress layout typical of wartime emergency currency. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is plain and unprinted, consistent with the wartime exigency nature of this postage stamp currency, the perforated paper stock left entirely blank. |
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| Comments |
Serbia's 1915 postage stamp currency was a direct consequence of the country's catastrophic wartime position — with the National Bank's printing facilities overwhelmed and coin metal nonexistent, the Finance Ministry authorized ordinary postage stamps, affixed to small cardboard or paper backing, to circulate as fractional currency. The 5 Para denomination addressed the most acute shortage at the smallest end of daily transactions.
These disintegrated rapidly in circulation. Surviving intact examples are genuinely uncommon, not because of low print runs but because the format was never built to last a week in a coat pocket.