Seychelles document photos online

Look very closely at the palm fronds engraved on Seychelles' 50-rupee note from 1968 and a word emerges from the leaves: SEX. It was no accident. A rebellious engraver at the British firm Bradbury & Wilkinson, sympathetic to the islands' push for independence, smuggled hidden insults into the colonial banknotes still bearing Queen Elizabeth II's portrait. The 10-rupee note hides SCUM beneath its turtle; the 20-rupee note conceals POOP in a bird's tail feathers. The colonial authorities never noticed until the notes had circulated for years, turning everyday Seychellois cash into one of the most subversive document forgeries in monetary history.

• Banknotes Seychelles' 1968-era colonial banknotes secretly spelled SEX in the palm leaves, SCUM under the turtle and POOP in a bird's feathers, hidden by an engraver who backed independence from Britain.
• Passport The Seychellois passport ranks 25th worldwide in the January 2025 Henley Passport Index with visa-free access to 156 destinations, making it the single most powerful passport in all of Africa.
• Borders Seychelles grants visa-free entry to citizens of every country on Earth, issuing a free Visitor's Permit on arrival to all comers, with Kosovo nationals the lone exception.
• Currency By population, Seychelles is the smallest sovereign nation on the planet to run its own independent currency and monetary policy, the Seychellois rupee.
• Security The rupee's 2016 anniversary series carries colour-shifting holographic patches that flip between the denomination number and an endangered native species, from the giant tortoise to the Seychelles scops owl.
• Independence Seychelles only became a sovereign state on 29 June 1976, making it one of the youngest independent nations whose citizens carry one of the world's strongest travel documents.
• Wealth Despite a population of barely 100,000, Seychelles posts the highest GDP per capita of any country in Africa, outranking far larger and more populous neighbours.
• Records The islands are home to the coco de mer, which produces the largest seed in the entire plant kingdom, weighing up to 18 kilograms (about 40 pounds).
• Geography Seychelles' Aldabra is the world's largest raised coral atoll and shelters more than 150,000 giant tortoises, outnumbering the country's human population.