Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Rupien
| Issuer | Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Decimalized Rupee (1904-1916) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Interims-Banknote (emergency issue) printed in black on plain paper within a diamond-pattern border frame. The issuing authority text reads 'Die Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank' in two lines across the centre, with the denomination '5 Fünf Rupien. 5' in large letterpress type. The place and date 'Daressalam, Tabora, 1. November 1915' appear at lower left, with the branch designation 'Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank Zweigniederlassung Daressalam In Vollmacht' at lower right, above two manuscript facsimile signatures. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain paper reverse printed in black, with a serial number appearing twice — once at the top and once at the bottom of the note. The large series letter 'D' is printed at left and right centre. A bilingual text block in German and Swahili occupies the upper portion, attesting to the backing of the note by the Imperial Government of German East Africa, followed by a German anti-counterfeiting warning at the foot. A small rectangular stamp of the Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank, Daressalam branch, is affixed at lower centre. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank's 1915 emergency issues were products of a colony cut off. Once the British naval blockade severed supply lines from Germany, the bank could no longer import printed notes from the Reich, forcing improvised local production in Dar es Salaam under increasingly difficult wartime conditions. The 1915 series was lithographed locally — a significant departure from the engraved European-produced notes of earlier years, and the quality difference shows.
Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's East Africa campaign kept German forces in the field until after the Armistice, meaning these notes remained nominally in use longer than currency issued by any other German colonial authority in the war.