Catalog
20 Dollars Colonial Bank
| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1910 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | British Guiana Dollar (1837-1965) |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio printing on yellow guilloche underprint, with the Royal Arms vignette at upper centre flanked by two circular $20 denomination counters at left and right. A bold promise-to-pay text in copperplate script occupies the centre field, with the place of issue GEORGETOWN, DEMERARY below, and a rectangular TWENTY DOLLARS panel at lower left. The note is overprinted SPECIMEN in red and carries three cancellation punch holes at lower centre, with the printer's imprint visible at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in blue, the reverse is dominated by a large central oval guilloche bearing the inscription COLONIAL BANK, flanked by two smaller circular rosette vignettes at left and right. Numeral 20 counters set within foliate scroll vignettes appear at upper centre and lower centre, framing the composition symmetrically. The printer's imprint Perkins, Bacon & Co. London appears at the bottom centre, and three cancellation punch holes are visible at the lower left. |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank was a British-chartered institution operating primarily across the British West Indies and British Guiana, eventually absorbed into Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in 1926. Notes of this period were printed in London and shipped to branch offices for issue — the bank itself had no local printing capacity.
Perkins, Bacon had been producing security printing for colonial banking clients since the mid-nineteenth century, using steel-intaglio techniques originally refined for postage stamps. Their work is generally resistant to amateur counterfeiting, which suited issuers whose circulation territories had limited detection infrastructure.
The S-prefix in the Pick reference denotes a private commercial bank issue rather than a government or central bank obligation.