10 Dollars

Among the earliest paper currency issued in Fiji, this note predates the formal cession of the islands to Britain by two years — Fiji became a Crown Colony in October 1874. The Government of Fiji Treasury was operating in a constitutional grey zone, printing money under the short-lived settler-dominated government of Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, who had accepted a form of confederate kingship in 1871.

S. T. Leigh & Co. were primarily a Sydney printing and stationery firm, not a specialist security printer. Three manuscript signatures — Smith, Clarkson, and Woods — were required per note, a labor-intensive authentication method that points to extremely limited issue volumes.