Pakistan P-56 75 Rupees 2022 UNC—4 Founding Figures—Climate Pledge

Pakistan's 2022 commemorative 75 Rupees note is one of the most ambitious banknote designs in the country's history — four founding figures on a single note, a climate-change message on the reverse, color-shifting ink, a windowed hologram strip, and a denomination so unusual it was refused by shopkeepers across the country despite being legal tender.

Front

• Colors: emerald green dominant engraving; light green and cream geometric guilloché background; copper-brown to lime-green color-shifting "75" at top left; gold denomination bar at bottom
• Portraits (left to right):
  • Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) — reformer, educator, founder of Aligarh Muslim University; pioneered modern education for South Asian Muslims
  • Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah (1893–1967) — "Mother of the Nation"; dentist, politician, sister of the founder
  • Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) — founder and first Governor-General of Pakistan (center, largest portrait)
  • Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) — poet-philosopher and spiritual father of Pakistan; his 1930 Allahabad Address first articulated the vision of a Muslim homeland
• 75th anniversary logo upper right
• Color-shifting ink: Urdu numeral ۷۵ (75) at top left shifts from copper-brown to lime-green when tilted
• Registration device: denomination visible as see-through register front-to-back
• Lettering: بینک دَولتِ پاکِستان (State Bank of Pakistan) / ۷۵ / 75 / پچیہتر روپے (Seventy Five Rupees)
• Signatures: Gov. Jameel Ahmed

Back

• Colors: all-green palette; teal-blue earth globe at left; deep green Markhor and Deodar tree engraving center; white windowed holographic security strip at right
• Globe: Earth as seen from space — anchoring the climate change message
• Markhor (Capra falconeri) — Pakistan's national animal; a large wild goat with dramatic corkscrew horns, native to the mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
• Deodar Tree (Cedrus deodara) — Pakistan's national tree; a Himalayan cedar sacred in Hindu tradition, meaning "timber of the gods"
• Mountains in background
• Security strip: Windowed holographic thread with moving circles and stylized "75"
• Lettering: STATE BANK OF PAKISTAN / SEVENTY FIVE RUPEES / SAVING CLIMATE AND SPECIES / 75 / 75 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

Other Characteristics

• Varieties: TBB B240 Specimen ($77); TBB B240 Issued (no UV on left serial) — this note; TBB B240 Issued (UV active on left serial, $1.50)
• Catalog numbers: P-56; TBB B240; Numista N#337073
• Watermark: Portrait of Quaid-e-Azam M.A. Jinnah and electrotype "75"
• Security features: Color-shifting ink (copper-brown to lime-green); windowed holographic security thread; UV-active serial numbers (varies by prefix — see note below); registration device
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 147 × 65 mm
• Issuing entity: State Bank of Pakistan
• Designer: De La Rue, United Kingdom (design integration); SBP internal banknote committee (concept)
• Printer: Pakistan Security Printing Corporation (PSPC), Pakistan
• Issued: 2022
• Demonetized: No — legal tender, though rarely accepted in practice
• Signatures: Gov. Jameel Ahmed
• Currency: Pakistani Rupee (decimalized, 1961–date)

UV Variety Note for Collectors

This note has a documented UV variety that affects collectibility. The left serial number is not fluorescent on prefixes NFT and AAA, and on lower-numbered AAB notes. It is fluorescent on higher AAB numbers and all subsequent prefixes (AAC through AAL, skipping AAI). If UV activity matters for your collection, check your prefix before purchasing — or ask us.

The Note Nobody Would Accept

Like its companion P-57 (75 Rupees, State Bank anniversary), this note is legal tender that shopkeepers refused. The 75 Rupee denomination fits nowhere in Pakistan's existing note ladder — and unfamiliar with it, merchants declined to accept it, fearing banks would do the same. Most examples remain in UNC condition simply because they were never spent. A genuine rarity in circulated grades.

Four Founders on One Note

No Pakistani banknote before this one had placed four founding figures side by side. Each represents a distinct pillar of the Pakistani national idea:

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) understood, decades before partition was conceivable, that South Asian Muslims needed modern education to survive in a changing world. He founded Aligarh Muslim University in 1875 — the institution that would produce much of Pakistan's founding generation. Without Sir Syed, there is no Jinnah as we know him.

Allama Iqbal (1877–1938) gave the idea of Pakistan its philosophical and spiritual architecture. His 1930 presidential address to the Muslim League in Allahabad was the first time a major political figure articulated the vision of a separate Muslim homeland in northwestern India. He died nine years before it was realized — but Jinnah credited him as the inspiration. His Urdu and Persian poetry remains central to Pakistani cultural identity.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948) turned the idea into a country. A barrister trained in London, he negotiated Pakistan into existence through sheer legal and political force of will, then died of tuberculosis just 13 months after independence — before he could shape what the country would become.

Fatima Jinnah (1893–1967) was not merely her brother's companion — she was a political force in her own right. She ran for president in 1965 against military dictator Ayub Khan in an election widely believed to have been stolen. She is Mādar-e Millat — Mother of the Nation.

Saving Climate and Species

The reverse of this note carries an explicit public service message: "SAVING CLIMATE AND SPECIES." This is unusual for a banknote — and deliberate. Pakistan is among the countries most severely affected by climate change despite contributing minimally to global emissions. The 2022 floods submerged one-third of the country, killing over 1,700 people and displacing millions.

The Markhor — Pakistan's national animal — was once critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. Conservation efforts have brought it back from the brink; it is now listed as Near Threatened. The Deodar Cedar, Pakistan's national tree, faces pressure from deforestation and glacial retreat. Placing both on a commemorative note is a statement: national identity and ecological survival are inseparable.

About Pakistan

• Origin of name: Acronym coined in 1933 by Choudhry Rahmat Ali — Punjab, Afghania (NWFP), Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan; also means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu/Persian (pāk = pure, -stan = land)
• Capital: Islamabad (city pop. ~1.2 million; metro ~2.2 million)
  • Origin of name: From Arabic/Persian Islāmābād — "City of Islam" (islām + ābād, Persian suffix meaning "inhabited place")
• Population: ~240 million (UN 2024) — 5th most populous country in the world; comparable to Brazil
• Area: 881,913 km² (340,509 mi²) — roughly the size of Texas and New Mexico combined
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$6,700 (IMF 2024)
• Main exports: Textiles and garments (~60% of exports), rice, leather goods, surgical instruments, chemicals
• Borders: India (east), Afghanistan (northwest), Iran (west), China (northeast); Arabian Sea (south)
• Official/spoken language: Urdu (official/national); English (official, government/legal); regional: Punjabi (~44%), Pashto (~15%), Sindhi (~14%), Saraiki, Balochi, and others
• Ethnicities: Punjabi (~44%), Pashtun (~15%), Sindhi (~14%), Saraiki (~11%), Muhajir (~8%), Baloch (~4%), other
• Memberships: United Nations (1947); Commonwealth of Nations (1947, suspended 1999–2004); OIC (founding member, 1969); SAARC (founding member, 1985); SCO (2017); nuclear-armed state (declared 1998)
• Sovereignty:
  • Ancient civilizations — Indus Valley Civilization (3300–1300 BC); Mohenjo-daro and Harappa both in modern Pakistan
  • Successive empires — Achaemenid Persian, Macedonian (Alexander the Great), Maurya, Kushan, Gupta
  • Islamic conquests (711 AD) — Muhammad bin Qasim conquers Sindh
  • Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1206–1857) — Lahore a major Mughal capital
  • British colonial rule (1858–1947) — part of British India following the 1857 uprising
  • Independence (August 14, 1947) — partition accompanied by one of history's largest mass migrations (~14 million displaced)
  • East Pakistan secedes (1971) — becomes Bangladesh after civil war and Indian military intervention
  • Islamic Republic of Pakistan (1956–date) — alternating civilian and military governments; nuclear tests 1998; this note issued during this period

Pakistan Unfiltered

• Pakistan is home to the second-largest salt mine in the world — the Khewra Salt Mine in Punjab, mined since the 13th century and source of the famous pink Himalayan salt
• The Indus Valley Civilization had flush toilets and urban sewage systems around 2500 BC — millennia before Rome
• Pakistan has more glaciers than anywhere outside the polar regions — over 7,000 in the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and Himalayas; melting rapidly
• The Karakoram Highway connecting Pakistan to China is often called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" — 20 years to build, hundreds of lives lost
• Pakistan's truck art tradition — elaborately hand-painted commercial trucks — is one of the world's most distinctive folk art forms
• Despite chronic economic instability, Pakistan has never formally defaulted on its external debt, relying heavily on IMF bailouts to avoid it

Own this UNC commemorative from Pakistan's 75th Independence anniversary — four founding figures, a climate pledge, a holographic strip, and color-shifting ink on a note that was too unusual to spend. A standout piece for South Asian, commemorative, or thematic collections.