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20 Dollars Colonial Bank
| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1822-1964) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Blue on orange-yellow underprint. The Royal Arms vignette is positioned at upper centre, below the bank title, flanked by two circular guilloche medallions each bearing the denomination numeral $20. The promise-to-pay text is rendered in copperplate script across the centre of the note, with the place of issue PORT OF SPAIN and the denomination TWENTY DOLLARS in bold letterpress. A rectangular panel at lower left carries the denomination TWENTY DOLLARS, and the imprint of Perkins Bacon & Co., London appears at the foot of the note; this example is a Specimen, with zeroed serial numbers and cancellation punch holes. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 20 COLONIAL BANK 20 |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank operated across the British West Indies and British Guiana from its 1836 founding until Barclays absorbed it in 1926. By 1903 it was a mature institution, and this denomination would have seen real commercial use in port towns handling sugar and rum exports — the economic backbone of every territory the bank served.
Perkins, Bacon & Co. had an almost unassailable grip on colonial currency printing throughout the nineteenth century, their steel engraving work favored precisely because it was difficult to counterfeit in territories with limited detection infrastructure. The "S" suffix on the Pick reference indicates this is a specimen, almost certainly retained in Perkins, Bacon's own archive rather than issued through normal banking channels.