20 Pond

De Nationale Bank der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Beperkt — the National Bank of the South African Republic — was a private commercial bank operating under a government concession in Pretoria, not a state central bank in the modern sense. Its higher-denomination notes like this 20 Pond circulated in a mining economy increasingly dominated by Witwatersrand gold revenues, which created demand for large-value paper instruments that the Republic's coin supply could not efficiently service.

Charles Skipper & East printed the series in England, with the manuscript date field left partially open — the "189_" format meant clerks completed day, month, and final year digit at the point of issue, a practice that complicates precise dating of surviving examples.