2017-03-07 Tue

Curiosity and a spark for adventure is a part of human nature which has led to many discoveries and explorations for new places and lands throughout the world. One of this exploration resulted in the discovery of the beautiful shores of East Africa.

East shores of Africa mainly Kenya and Uganda today were explored by the Arab traders for ivory, slaves and other goods. Arabs were the one who introduced the concept of monetary system in these lands. Before that, the Africans use to follow barter system.

Later in 1885 Berlin Conference divided Africa among European powers, Kenya and Uganda came under the control of The Imperial British East African Company (IBEAC). In 1888-1890 Mombasa issued coins which were minted in India. They also introduced notes in rupee; the currency was a mixture of the rupee, Anna and Pice. In 1906 British East Africa started minting local currency.

After 1837 the portrait of the English monarch was depicted on the currency and later the National Bank of India was established in 1892. In 1919 the East African Currency Board (EACB) was formed, later on, due to the rise in the price of silver, currency notes were introduced. This note was issued by EACB in 1920 depicting the portrait of King George V and was amongst the first issues of EABC.

In 1921 the denomination of rupee was changed into African shilling and the foreign denominations were removed from the African Monetary system.