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4 Shillings L. 1894, Government of the Cook Islands
| Issuer | Government of the Cook Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 1894 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | UNDER ACT OF THE FEDERAL PARLIAMENT OF 7th AUGUST 1894 This Note will be received by the Government of the COOK ISLANDS for FOUR SHILLINGS Sterling, in payment of Import Duty or other Dues. Registered Receiver of Revenue |
| Reverse description | The reverse is essentially plain, with faint ink show-through from the obverse visible through the paper stock, including traces of the guilloche underprint and denomination lettering. |
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| Comments |
Cook Islands notes from this era occupy genuinely strange legal ground. Britain had declared a protectorate over the islands in 1888, yet the local government continued issuing its own currency through the 1890s — an arrangement that ended abruptly when New Zealand annexed the group in 1901 and swept away the indigenous fiscal apparatus entirely.
The denomination itself is an outlier. Four shillings is an awkward unit with no obvious precedent in standard British colonial currency practice, suggesting it was calibrated to local trade needs rather than imported wholesale from sterling convention. P#2 is among the rarest surviving Cook Islands issues; the tiny population and short window of valid circulation meant almost no reason existed to produce or retain large quantities.