The British North Borneo Company held one of the last functioning chartered company administrations in the world when this note was printed — a relic of Victorian-era commercial colonialism still exercising sovereign currency powers well into the twentieth century. Waterlow & Sons produced the plates in London, though the notes circulated across a territory governed more like a corporate estate than a Crown colony.
The "small frame" designation distinguishes this from the earlier large-frame issues of the same denomination — a reduction reflecting revised printing economics rather than any monetary policy change. The Company's administration ended abruptly in 1941 with the Japanese invasion.
The British North Borneo Company held one of the last functioning chartered company administrations in the world when this note was printed — a relic of Victorian-era commercial colonialism still exercising sovereign currency powers well into the twentieth century. Waterlow & Sons produced the plates in London, though the notes circulated across a territory governed more like a corporate estate than a Crown colony.
The "small frame" designation distinguishes this from the earlier large-frame issues of the same denomination — a reduction reflecting revised printing economics rather than any monetary policy change. The Company's administration ended abruptly in 1941 with the Japanese invasion.