50 Shilingi

Tanzania's 1986 note series was issued at a period of acute economic strain, following the collapse of the East African Currency Board arrangement and years of single-party economic mismanagement under the Ujamaa program. By the mid-1980s, the shilingi had lost most of its real purchasing power and Tanzania was deep in IMF renegotiations — a 50 shilingi denomination that would have been meaningful in the early 1970s was essentially small change by the time this note circulated.

The "With islands" designation distinguishes this from otherwise similar issues, reflecting the constitutional inclusion of Zanzibar and Pemba within the United Republic — a politically sensitive distinction that Tanzania's central bank was careful to maintain on currency.