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[GORDON, CHARLES GEORGE], Banknote issued by Gordon Pasha in Khartoum, dated 25 April 1884. Twenty-piaster note printed in Arabic with Gordon's blue ink Arabic stamp and signature in English ("C G Gordon") in lower left corner.
[Khartoum, Sudan], april 25, 1884. 2-3/8 x 4-1/8. Crudely printed in Arabic on one side. Ink stamp of Figari, Cairo, on verso. Light soiling, else a very good specimen of a rare financial document from the siege of Khartoum. ¶ British soldier of fortune Charles George Gordon took command of a militia in China in 1860, at the age of 30, and suppressed the Taiping rebels, for which he was rewarded by the emperor and given the title of mandarin. "Chinese" Gordon, as he was thereafter known, entered the employ of the Khedive of Egypt in 1873 as governor of the province of Equatoria. He attempted to discharge his mission, which included suppression of the slave trade, but the government in Khartoum was deeply involved in that trade, and resisted his efforts. Gordon resigned and left Africa for a time. He was appointed governor of the Sudan in 1877, but ill-health forced him to return to England. In 1884, he returned once more to the Sudan at the head of a British force sent to relieve the garrison in Khartoum. Once in that city, he found the administration in disarray; the sum of £100,000 intended to pay officials and troops had been embezzled. Gordon issued his own provisional banknotes in varying denominations, all bearing the date April 25, 1884. He signed about half of these notes himself. Gordon was besieged in Khartoum by the forces of the Mahdi and managed to hold out for months. In November 1884, a British force led by Wolseley reached the Sudan, and entered Khartoum on January 28, 1885, to find that the fortress had fallen two days earlier, and Gordon had been murdered. During the sack of the city, these banknotes were burned or discarded in the streets; possession of a note was severely punished. Some banknotes were nevertheless brought to Cairo, where they were for the most part repudiated
Offered for US$ 2500.00 by: James Cummins Bookseller - Book number: 35429