United Nations Emergency Force Scrip

Scrip paper worth 5 Piastres labelled “MIDDLE EAST,” “U.N.E.F.”, “NOT GOOD IF DETACHED”, and “108830”.

A rare note, or emergency scrip, was used during the 1956 Suez Crisis by the United Nations Emergency Force. It was likely used by British and French soldiers to trade at camp stores and recreation facilities in the Sinai Peninsula.

A booklet of these scrips was sold at a Spink auction in 2013. That catalog said the tickets were printed by the Globe ticket company in Philadelphia.

Spink wrote, “a most unusual item, presumably for use in the NAAFI or similar by French and British forces during the Suez crisis.”

I had to look up “NAAFI” and found that it stood for the “Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes”. This company was created by the British government to run recreational facilities for the British Armed Forces and its bases around the world.

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