Description and research notes
Pre-issue color workup from the immediate post-monarchy redesign program, when the new Central Bank replaced royal iconography with Omar al-Mukhtar. Color trials like this were printed to test the interaction between the intaglio key plate and multiple tint stones: librarians of the pressroom would compare flesh tones, sky/sand palettes, and the legibility of micro-ornament under different ink loads.
Because the portrait carries heavy cross-hatching, the printer balanced the underprint density to keep the face from closing up at production speeds. Trials frequently show subtle registration cues and alternate serial placements that never reach circulation—useful for reconstructing the printer’s decision tree. Recorded as the only graded color trial for the denomination, this sheet preserves the moment when palette and plate finally “locked in” for the 1971 issue.