 |
| Mauritius banknotes 10 rupees banknote Queen Elizabeth |
 |
| Mauritian Currency - 10 Rupees banknote |
Currency of Mauritius - 10 Rupees banknote of 1954, issued by the BRITISH GOVERNMENT OF MAURITIUS.
Mauritius banknotes, Mauritius paper money, Mauritian rupee banknotes, Mauritius paper money currency collection.Obverse: Portrait of young Queen Elizabeth II wearing the George IV State Diadem "Diamond Diadem". This portrait was copied from a photograph taken by Dorothy Wilding during a single portrait sitting shortly after Elizabeth became monarch. This portrait, in one of its varieties, is the most frequently used image of Queen Elizabeth on world banknotes. The Queen is wearing the George IV State Diadem, created for the coronation of George IV in 1820. Designed with symbols of the rose, thistle and shamrock, the Diadem contains 1,333 diamonds. Queen Elizabeth often wears the Diadem on state occasions. The necklace worn by The Queen, of diamond flowers and leaves, was a wedding present from Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar.
The most common variety of this portrait is the engraving prepared for the notes printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company. This variety of the portrait is distinguished by the heavy shading on Her Majesty's right cheek and the tilt of the head. The value of 10 Rupees written in English, Tamil and Hindi.
Reverse: Coat of arms of Mauritius.
Printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, New Malden in Surrey, England.
Mauritius banknotes - Mauritius paper money
ND (1954) "Queen Elizabeth II" Issue
Mauritian rupee is the official unit of exchange in the Republic of Mauritius. Mauritius, although being an African country, use rupee that is popular among Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Indonesia and Maldives. As per the ISO 4217 regulation, the currency and the numeric code for Mauritian rupee are defined as MUR and 480 respectively. Like most of the other rupee denominated currencies, Mauritian rupee is depicted with symbols “Rs” or “₨”. The currency came into existence and has been serving the nation since the year 1934. The subunit of Mauritian rupee is provided by “cent” and is counted among the only three rupee currencies to use “cent” as its sub divisional unit.
Mauritius is a country that is counted among the rapidly developing nations of the world. Though it gained its independence in 1968 but was recognized as a republic in as late as 1992. This is the reason for the slow rate of development in the country before 1992 but in the present scenario, Mauritius looks much promising. It has transformed into a middle-income diversified economy from its outlook in the past as a low-income agrarian economy when it got independent. The financial, industrial and tourist sectors of Mauritius look brighter than before and are the backbone of the country's economy.
Mauritius along with Seychelles, are the only two African currencies that use rupee as their official currency unit as rupee's background is very much related to Asian continent. Initially when the currency was launched in 1934, it held a direct peg to the British pound sterling but currently follows a free float exchange rate regime. As far as the import export restrictions in the island country are concerned, the local currency cannot be imported more than the amount 700 MUR and the export limit for the same is Rs 350 MUR. The foreign currency import do not have any restrictions provided the amount be declared and export of foreign currency can be done only till the amount imported.
During the 15th and 16th century, when the concept of colonization developed among the European countries and the countries like Britain, France, Netherlands, Portugal etc conducted voyages to discover new lands, the route to the eastern world had Mauritius as an important way station. Portugal was the first European country to establish a base on the island but in the 1600s, Dutch annexed Mauritius. They brought along with them Dutch coins that used to circulate in the island at that time. French took over Mauritius in the year 1721 and as in the other colonies of France, French Colonial Livre that was abbreviated as XFCL started to be used in both coin and banknote form. Initially, the banknotes in French denomination were issued by “Compagnie Francaise des Indes”, a private French company that controlled the island. The company handed over the control to the French government in 1764 and consequently, the government started issuing its own notes. From 1768, the banknotes started to get issued locally and also other popular foreign currencies such as Spanish silver dollars and Indian gold and silver coins were used prominently with the official unit of account.
In the early 19th century, Britain captured Mauritius and changed the official unit of account to Pound Sterling but Spanish dollars were still popular as a prime medium of exchange. In an attempt to popularize the British currency, many attempts were made including establishment of a currency board in 1849 but all these steps didn't work. In 1876, Indian rupee was made the official currency of Mauritius due to its popularity and the pound sterling banknotes were withdrawn from the circulation. In 1934, Mauritian rupee finally replaced Indian rupee and formed a separate currency that was directly linked to pound sterling and note the Indian rupee. The responsibility of managing currency in the country was entitled to the Mauritius Currency Board from 1934 till 1967, when Bank of Mauritius came into existence and has been issuing the currency in Mauritius till present.