Catalog
25 Dollars Coat of arms
| Issuer | British North Borneo Chartered Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE British North Borneo Company INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER This note is legal tender for 25 TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS 25 in the State of North Borneo |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in red-brown, the reverse is dominated by an elaborate letterpress design of interlocking floral scrollwork and guilloche rosettes arranged symmetrically around a central lozenge bearing the numeral "25". The issuer's name arches above and below the central motif in a circular arrangement. |
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| Comments |
The British North Borneo Chartered Company was one of the last functioning chartered companies in the British imperial system — a commercial enterprise granted quasi-governmental authority over a territory roughly the size of Ireland. By 1940, that arrangement was already anachronistic, and the Japanese invasion of December 1941 effectively ended it. Notes issued that final year circulated only briefly before occupation currency replaced them entirely.
The P#32 is the highest denomination in the 1940 series, which makes surviving examples uncommon. High-value notes in colonial territories were typically used for interbank settlement and government transactions rather than retail commerce, so genuine circulation wear is less common than hoarding damage or wartime deterioration.