1 Pound

The Bank of Africa Ltd. was a Cape-based institution with roots in the Cape Commercial Bank's reorganization, and its Durban branch issues reflect the fragmented banking geography of pre-Union South Africa, where individual branches sometimes warranted their own place-of-payment designations on notes. Waterlow & Sons handled the printing throughout, a common arrangement for southern African private banks in this period who lacked any local security printing infrastructure.

The long date range — spanning the pre-Union period into the 1920 withdrawal of many private bank privileges following the 1920 Banking Act amendments — means specimens from different years can show subtle typographic differences in the date panel while sharing the same basic plate.