Catalog
10 Dollars - Charles Brooke
| Issuer | Government of Sarawak |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929-1940 |
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| Value | 10 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Printed in red on a pale ground, the obverse presents an intaglio portrait of Charles Vyner Brooke in three-quarter view at right, with an oval guilloche frame enclosing a central vignette of palm trees alongside the Sarawak coat of arms at left. The bold central panel reads TEN DOLLARS, flanked by ornamental borders, with Jawi script along the upper border and Chinese characters at the foot; the Treasurer of Sarawak's signature appears beneath the date and serial number. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | THE GOVERNMENT OF SARAWAK |
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| Comments |
Sarawak's paper currency was issued not by a central bank but by the personal government of the Brooke Rajah — a dynastic arrangement unique in the colonial world. Charles Vyner Brooke, third and final White Rajah, presided over this series through a decade of relative stability that ended abruptly with the Japanese occupation in December 1941. Notes issued late in the 1929–1940 range had extraordinarily short working lives.
Bradbury Wilkinson produced the series in London to a high security standard, but many surviving examples show tropical foxing and humidity damage consistent with storage conditions in Borneo. The Japanese administration rendered all Brooke-era currency void, and post-liberation attempts at exchange were only partially honored.