Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Cents Darvel Bay
| Issuer | The Darvel Bay (Borneo) Tobacco Plantations Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1880-1890 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5 THE DARVEL BAY (BORNEO) TOBACCO PLANTATIONS, LIMITED. No Will pay to Bearer on demand the sum of FIVE CENTS at their Lahat Datu or Lamin Segama Estates Accountant General Manager Charles Skipper & East London. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 5 |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Darvel Bay sits on the northeast coast of Borneo, and the tobacco plantation economy there during the 1880s operated in near-total isolation from formal banking infrastructure. The Darvel Bay (Borneo) Tobacco Plantations Limited issued its own scrip precisely because there was no practical alternative — coin supply was irregular, and paying labor required something tangible. These notes functioned as a closed-currency system redeemable only within the plantation's own stores and payroll.
Charles Skipper & East handled a significant volume of colonial and commercial scrip printing out of London during this period, which is why their imprint turns up on plantation notes from Borneo to Malaya. The notes were shipped out to a territory that was, at the time of issue, only recently under British North Borneo Chartered Company administration — the Royal Charter was granted in 1881.