1 Pound

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sits at that precise transition point; the Reserve Bank opened in June 1921, and private bank issues were progressively withdrawn from circulation over the following years.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.