Catalog
4 Shillings - 'Pound Sterling'
| Issuer | Government of Tonga |
|---|---|
| Year | 1931-1936 |
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| Currency | Pound (1921-1967) |
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| Obverse description | Brown on pale underprint. Palm trees flank the left and right margins, with the Tongan Coat of Arms as the central vignette. The word STERLING appears at right, with the full promise-to-pay legend and date inscribed below the arms. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Brown. The reverse is dominated by an elaborate symmetrical guilloche rosette pattern composed of interlocking floral and geometric lathe-work elements extending across the full width of the note. Denomination indicators appear in each corner, with '4/s' at upper-left and lower-right and 'FOUR' at upper-right and lower-left in serifed letterpress type. |
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| Comments |
Tonga's first government-issued banknotes appeared in 1921 under Queen Salote Tupou III, and this 4 Shilling denomination — an unusual face value by any standard — reflects the practical arithmetic of a country where the traditional tax unit, the tokelau, mapped awkwardly onto sterling subdivisions. Four shillings was precisely one-fifth of a pound, which made it useful for tax collection and wage payments in a small, largely subsistence economy with limited coin supply.
De La Rue's involvement from the outset placed these notes among the better-produced colonial issues of the Pacific. The series ran through 1936, the year of Salote's consolidation of royal authority over church and state finances.