Pakistan's most expensive Banknote ever sold

Did you know that banknotes could be worth more than 1000 times their face value? Banknotes become more valuable due to historical context, for setting records or for sheer rarity. From banknotes issued in 1948 and afterwards in Pakistan, you would be surprised at how much certain notes manage to sell at auction.

The rarest and most celebrated of all Pakistan banknotes was never going to come cheap. But the famous 1950 Rs. 100 Hajj Regular Banknote exceeded all expectations when it fetched a staggering  $76,700 (around Rs. 8,053,500/-) at an auction in 2015. In today's money it is equal to around Rs. 13,836,680/-

In the same year the specimen of the same banknote fetched  $65,232 (around Rs. 6,849,360/-) at an auction. In today's money it is equal to around Rs. 11,767,853/-

This was the first Hajj note issued by the Government of Pakistan. The Hajj note was prepared with the same design as the existing 100 Rupees note, but the color was changed from green to red and an over-print was applied to the front of the note, indicating the specific use of the notes. The overprint read (in English): ‘For Pilgrims From Pakistan For Use In Saudi Arabia and Iraq.’ The Hajj notes were not legal tender in Pakistan, but they could be used in Saudi Arabia to purchase Saudi riyals and be remitted to Pakistan via the usual channel of the Saudi Arabian banks.

 

The note was prepared by Thomas De La Rue & Company of Great Britain. The design for the note was similar to the 1 Pound note of the Bank of England that circulated between 1948 and 1960. Thus, the patterns of the note were predominantly based on geometric designs.

 

Details of the Note

Dimensions: 166 x 90 mm

Watermark: None

Security Thread: None

Signed by: Sir Malik Ghulam Muhammad (first Finance Minister of Pakistan)