Last updated: September 2026

What currency did Rhodesia use?

Rhodesia used a pound of 20 shillings until 17 February 1970, and a decimal dollar after that. Both were issued by the Reserve Bank of Rhodesia, which took over the note issue in 1964 from the Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The pound notes ran to three denominations, the dollar notes to four.

The note issue for this part of central Africa changed hands four times in twenty-five years, and each handover is visible on the paper. The Southern Rhodesia Currency Board signed the notes until 1954. The Central Africa Currency Board took over for a single 1955 series of 10 shillings, 1 pound and 5 pounds (PMG World Paper Money Price Guide). The Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland issued from 1956 to 1961 in four denominations, from 10 shillings up to a 10 pound note, all printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company and all signed first by A. P. Grafftey-Smith and then by C. J. Richards (PMG). Then, in 1964, the Reserve Bank of Rhodesia put its own name on the money.

What did not change through any of it was the watermark. From 1956 to the last dollar notes of the 1970s, every note in this family was made on paper bearing the head of Cecil Rhodes. Collectors use it as the quickest authenticity check in the series, and our guide to the history of banknote watermarks explains why a watermark is so hard to fake.

What are the Rhodesian banknote series?

There are three Reserve Bank of Rhodesia series: a 1964 pound issue printed in England, a 1966 to 1968 pound issue printed inside the country, and a decimal dollar issue that begins on 17 February 1970. The table sets them in the longer sequence of issuers so you can see the portrait appear and then disappear.

The pound notes are dated to the day, which is how the series is sorted. The 1964 issue is listed without a day date and with a single signature. The 1966 issue opens with the 10 shillings of 1 June 1966, the 1 pound of 15 June 1966 and the 5 pounds of 1 July 1966, and the 1 pound alone then runs through three further dates: 18 August 1967, 1 September 1967 and 14 October 1968, the last Rhodesian pound note of all (PMG, Pick 28). A specimen of the 1 pound is listed separately as P-28s; our guide to specimen notes explains what those are.

The decimal notes are dated the same way. The 1, 2 and 10 dollars all begin on 17 February 1970 and carry date varieties running forward from there, while the 5 dollars enters the catalog later, on 16 October 1972 (PMG, Pick 32). Counting every date, signature and variety across the whole territory, one published Rhodesia catalog chapter lists 289 varieties of notes from 1896 to 1979 (Banknote News), which tells you how much depth is here beyond the ten Pick numbers of the Reserve Bank era. If Pick numbers are new to you, start with our guide to Pick numbers.

Who printed Rhodesian banknotes?

The 1964 pound notes were printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, the English security printer whose imprint reads BWC on the note. The 1966 notes carry no imprint at all, because the Reserve Bank printed them itself after two orders placed with outside printers failed to arrive.

The sequence is documented in the trade press. In October 1965 the Reserve Bank board ordered 20 million notes from Bradbury Wilkinson. Rhodesia declared independence the following month, the board was replaced the month after that, and the new board ordered a fresh series from the German printer Giesecke and Devrient. A court case followed, the Giesecke and Devrient notes were destroyed, an export license for the Bradbury Wilkinson notes was refused, and the bank was left to print its own money. The three denominations that resulted were issued on 1 June, 15 June and 1 July 1966 (CoinWeek, drawing on Owen Linzmayer's The Banknote Book).

You can see the change on the paper without knowing any of that history. The 1964 notes came from an English security printer, with a black serial number and a portrait in the same color as the note. The 1966 notes are lithographed, the serial number is red, and the portrait is printed in a contrasting color: black on the 10 shillings, brown on the 1 pound, purple on the 5 pounds (PMG, Pick 27). It is one of the clearest side-by-side lessons in printing method anywhere in world paper money, and it sits alongside our explainer on how banknotes are printed.

What is on a Rhodesian banknote?

The pound notes carry a Queen Elizabeth II portrait at right and the coat of arms at upper center, with a landscape or monument on the back. The dollar notes drop the portrait entirely and lead with the bank's logo. Three back designs run through the whole family: a tobacco field, Victoria Falls and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe.

Denomination by denomination, the pound notes pair a color with a place. The 10 shillings is blue with a tobacco field on the back (PMG, Pick 24). The 1 pound is red with Victoria Falls (PMG, Pick 25). The 5 pounds is blue-green, adds a sable antelope at lower left, and puts the stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe on the back (PMG, Pick 26).

The decimal notes reuse those three scenes and add two more. The 1 dollar is blue and keeps the tobacco field (PMG, Pick 30), the 2 dollars is red and keeps Victoria Falls (PMG, Pick 31), and the 10 dollars keeps the sable antelope and the Great Zimbabwe ruins (PMG, Pick 33). Only the 5 dollars is genuinely new: brown, with a giraffe at lower left and two lions on the back. That continuity is the point. A collector who lines up a 1964 5 pound note beside a 1970s 10 dollar note is looking at the same scene of the same ruins on two different currencies.

Signatures and dates

Rhodesian pound notes are sorted by date rather than by signature, because one signature combination covers the whole pound era in the catalog. The decimal notes work the same way: the 1 dollar alone carries eleven listed dates between 17 February 1970 and 15 October 1974, and the 10 dollars nine dates between 17 February 1970 and 3 December 1975.

What are Rhodesian banknotes worth?

Condition decides everything here. The pound notes had barely six years in circulation before decimalization replaced them. High-grade survivors are scarce and carry a large premium over worn examples, while the decimal dollar notes are far more available. The figures below are catalog values in US dollars from the PMG World Paper Money Price Guide, read in September 2026, at three points on the grading ladder.

Two patterns are worth reading off that table. First, an Uncirculated note is listed at roughly eight to fifteen times a Very Good one right across the series, which is why grade is the first question to settle. Second, the 1964 notes printed in England are the most expensive of the pound era at every grade, and the later dates within each type are the cheapest: the 1 pound of 14 October 1968 is listed at $400 in Uncirculated 60 against $550 for the 15 June 1966 note.

Two rarities sit above the issued notes. Color trials of all three 1964 denominations exist, listed at $900 to $1,250 in Uncirculated 60, and the 1 pound specimen at $900. For what drives these numbers in general, see what determines a banknote's value.

What replaced the Rhodesian dollar?

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe replaced it. Its first notes, cataloged as Pick 1 to Pick 4, are dated 1980 and run 2, 5, 10 and 20 dollars. They are an obvious redesign: the Cecil Rhodes watermark is gone, replaced by the Zimbabwe bird, and the front of every denomination shows the Chiremba balancing rocks at Epworth.

The bridge detail collectors like is the place of issue printed on the note. The 1980 notes read Salisbury; from 1982 the same designs read Harare (PMG, Zimbabwe Pick 1). The design continuity is there too, because the 1980 10 dollars keeps the sable antelope that had appeared on Rhodesian 5 pound and 10 dollar notes since 1964 (PMG, Zimbabwe Pick 3). A Rhodesian 10 dollar note and a 1980 Zimbabwe 10 dollar note, side by side in one frame, is one of the tidiest two-note stories in African paper money.

Everything after that belongs to a different chapter, and we cover it elsewhere: the Zimbabwe banknotes hub walks all five generations of the Zimbabwe dollar and the gold-backed ZiG of 2024, Zimbabwe's hyperinflation covers the 2007 to 2009 collapse and the trillion-denomination notes, and the most valuable Zimbabwe banknotes ranks the pieces that carry the highest premiums. For the wider list of units that ended, see currencies that no longer exist.

How do you start collecting Rhodesian banknotes?

Pick one of three routes: a type set of ten notes, a portrait set, or a date run. A type set means one example each of Pick 24 through Pick 33, which is the whole Reserve Bank era in ten pieces and the target most collectors choose first. Whichever route you take, three habits matter more than any single purchase.

• Check the watermark before anything else. Hold the note to a light and look for the head of Cecil Rhodes. It is present on every Reserve Bank issue, pound and dollar alike, and its absence is a red flag. Our guide to banknote security features covers what else to look for.
• Read the date line. Most Rhodesian types differ only by date, and the differences move catalog values by a third or more. A photograph that crops the date is a photograph you cannot price.
• Decide raw or certified early. The decimal dollars are affordable enough to collect raw. The 1964 pound notes in high grade are where third-party certification earns its fee, because PMG and PCGS authenticate and grade on a 1 to 70 scale and seal the note in a tamper-evident holder (Paper Money Guaranty). Our banknote grading guide walks the scale and graded versus raw banknotes weighs the trade-off.

Two more things help. The International Bank Note Society has had a Rhodesia-Zimbabwe topical chapter with its own newsletter, which is the specialist literature for this area (Banknote News, 2010). And because the pound notes carry a Queen Elizabeth II portrait, they slot neatly into a wider theme: see our hub on Queen Elizabeth II banknotes for the issuers, portraits and territories that make up that collection.

Where can you buy Rhodesian banknotes?

Buy from a dealer that documents where each note came from and describes the date and grade precisely. Planet Banknote lists world paper money by country rather than quoting a fixed market price, because inventory and grades change. Browse the banknotes by country index, and if you are following the story forward, the Zimbabwe banknotes collection is where this one continues.

If you are new to buying world paper money, our guide to buying world banknotes safely sets out what to check in a listing and a seller, and how to collect world banknotes covers the first decisions for a new collection.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.