The earliest currency, therefore, was the Indian Rupee, which had ‘Government of Pakistan’ printed on it in English and ‘Hakumat-e-Pakistan’ printed on it in Urdu on the white area of the note reserved for watermarks. The provision for the issuance of currency to the newly independent country was made by the Governor General of India, a day before independence.
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According to the provision, the Reserve Bank of India would function as the sole authority for the issuance of currency to both India and Pakistan until the 30th of September 1948. The Government of Pakistan was given a deadline of one year to set up its banking system and a printing press.

In the meantime, the printing plates were modified to include the ‘Government of Pakistan’ tags on the notes to avoid forgery due to overprints. The notes went into circulation on the 1st of April, 1948, and included denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 100 Rupee notes.

The first banknotes issued by the State Bank of Pakistan were released on the 1st of October 1948, in denominations of 5, 10 and 100 Rupee. The currency notes were printed by a British firm, Thomas De La Rue & Company. The 5-Rupee note of that time used to be blue, the 10-Rupee one was reddish-orange, and the 100-Rupee note was dark green.

The 1 and 2-Rupee notes were issued about six months later, on the 1st of March 1949. They were printed by a British firm named Bradbury Wilkinson & Company. The 1-Rupee note was green in clour with Naulakha Pavilion on the back, while the 2-Rupee note was brown with Badshahi Mosque on the back.

New designs for the 5, 10 and 100-Rupee note were then sent out for approval and once approved, the 5 and 10-Rupee notes were issued by the State Bank of Pakistan, printed by Thomas De La Rue in September of 1959. The 5-Rupee note had the Khyber Pass on its back, while the 10 Rupee note had Makli Tombs on the back. The first 100-Rupee note was issued about 2 years later as the initial design was rejected. These early notes contained the crescent moon and star, either as print or as a watermark to signify Pakistan.

However, after news of forgery reached the Cabinet in 1956, a new series was designed with the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In this series, the 100-Rupee note was the first to be issued near the end of 1957, which was green in colour, had a print as well as a watermark of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and had the Badshahi Mosque at the back of the note. By the end of 1970, the 50, 500, 5, and 10-Rupee notes had also been issued.

After the separation of East Pakistan, many depictions on the notes, such as Bengali text, were no longer appropriate and therefore, a new generation of Pakistani notes was designed to be issued. The first note in this series was the 1-Rupee note, introduced in May of 1974. It was blue in colour with writing in all four major regional languages. The back contained an image of the Minar-e-Pakistan. This note was short lived due to its use of regional languages, which could potentially create a divide among the people.

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