20 Dollars Gold Certificate of Deposit

Hawaii's Gold Certificates of Deposit were not conventional circulating currency — they were warehouse receipts backed by gold coin held by the Republic's Treasury, issued during the brief period between the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893 and annexation by the United States in 1898. The Republic of Hawaii had roughly five years to establish credible fiscal institutions, and these certificates were part of that effort.

American Bank Note Company printed the series, as they did for most Hawaiian government paper of the period. The P#8 assignment places this denomination within a small, low-mintage series that never achieved wide distribution before U.S. annexation rendered separate Hawaiian currency instruments redundant.