50 Shillings

Uganda's second-generation shilling notes of the mid-1980s were issued against a backdrop of severe economic instability — inflation was running at several hundred percent annually by the mid-decade, and the 50 Shilling denomination, once meaningful, was rapidly losing practical purchasing power even as new notes left the London presses. The Obote II government, restored in 1980 after the Tanzanian-backed ouster of Idi Amin, oversaw a monetary system in near-constant crisis throughout its tenure.

De La Rue's watermark on this series is the primary security concession — relatively modest for the period, reflecting the cost constraints of a heavily aid-dependent issuer.