Catalog
1 Dollar
| Issuer | British North Borneo Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1927-1930 |
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| Size | 180 x 112 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black on dark green underprint with red guilloche overprint reading ONE DOLLAR. Intaglio vignette of Mount Kinabalu at upper center, flanked by ornate scrollwork and numeral 1 panels at left and right. Promise-to-pay text inscribed across the central field with serial number, date, and two manuscript signature lines below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE BRITISH NORTH BORNEO COMPANY ONE DOLLAR Promise to pay the Bearer on demand the sum of ONE DOLLAR CURRENCY COMMISSIONER FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER |
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| Comments |
The British North Borneo Chartered Company was one of the last functioning chartered companies with genuine governmental powers — collecting taxes, administering justice, and issuing its own currency across what is now Sabah. By 1927, that authority was already an anachronism, and the Company would cede control to the Crown just over a decade later following the Japanese occupation of 1941–45.
De La Rue produced the series to a high standard, as was routine for their colonial contracts. Notes from this issue occasionally show tropical paper degradation — the equatorial humidity in Borneo was hard on cotton stock, and circulated survivors frequently exhibit toning and tide lines that have nothing to do with handling.