Catalog
25 Pounds
| Issuer | Durban Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1864 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S444 |
| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on white paper in a mid-19th-century intaglio and letterpress style. The issuer's name 'Durban Bank' appears in ornate script at the top centre, flanked by a vignette of a figure at upper left and a central harbour or town scene vignette, with the denomination numeral '25' in an ornamental panel at upper right. A bearer promise text in copperplate script reads 'We Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand at our Office here TWENTY FIVE POUNDS Sterl. value received', with spaces for manuscript date and place of issue, and a large decorative 'TWENTY FIVE' legend in flourished script at the lower left; signature lines for 'For the Proprietors' and 'Chief Clerk' appear at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#S444a - Signature title: Chief Clerk, 186x P#S444b - Signature title: Chief Accountant, 12.04.1864 |
| Comments |
The Durban Bank was a short-lived colonial institution, established in Natal in the early 1860s during a period of speculative banking expansion in the province. It did not survive long enough to leave a substantial note-issuing history, which makes any surviving example from this series genuinely rare.
Nissen & Parker operated as a relatively minor London printing house — not one of the dominant security printers of the period — and their work on colonial bank paper is infrequently documented. The high face value suggests this note was intended for merchant and interbank settlement rather than retail circulation, sharply limiting the number ever put into daily use.