Catalog
1 Pound
| Issuer | National Bank of South Africa Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse bears the heading RHODESIAN ISSUE at top, with the bank title THE NATIONAL BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA LIMITED in bold lettering across the upper portion. A classical female allegorical vignette occupies the left side, the figure seated among agricultural implements and a landscape background. The central text reads Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand at their Office, with the denomination ONE POUND within a panel, the payable office overprinted as SALISBURY over a struck-through JOHANNESBURG, dated 1st September, 1921, and signed by order of the Board of Directors. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The National Bank of South Africa Limited was a commercial bank, not a central bank — it operated under private charter and issued notes alongside several competing institutions before the South African Reserve Bank absorbed the currency-issuing function in 1921. This note sits at that precise transition point; the Reserve Bank opened in June 1921, and private bank issues were progressively withdrawn from circulation over the following years.
Waterlow & Sons had printed South African commercial bank notes for decades by this date, and the quality of their intaglio work was consistent enough that the public generally trusted privately issued paper more than many governments managed with their own production.
P#S119 is scarce in any grade — the withdrawal and destruction of private issues was thorough.