Catalog
5 Dollars
| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Value | 5 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Brown letterpress print on an orange guilloche underprint, with red serial numbers. The British Royal Coat of Arms is centrally placed as the principal vignette, surrounded by ornate lathe work. The issuer name, denomination, promise-to-pay text, place of issue, and date appear in typeset lettering, with the printer's imprint at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COLONIAL BANK FIVE PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT ITS OFFICE HERE INCORPORTED BY ROYAL CHARTER 1836 FIVE DOLLARS BRIDGETOWN BARBADOS 1ST JANUARY 1918 ACCOUNTANT MANAGER PERKINS, BACON & CO. Ltd. LONDON HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE DIEU ET MON DROIT (Translation: Shamed be the one who thinks ill of it. God and my right.) |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank operated across the British West Indies and British Guiana from 1836 until its absorption into Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in 1926. By 1918, the bank was already in managed decline — the merger had been anticipated for years, and note issues from this final period were produced in relatively small quantities against a shrinking need.
Perkins, Bacon handled the printing, as they did for much of the Colonial Bank's note history. The firm's steel intaglio work was standard for Caribbean colonial issuers of the period, and the same production relationship stretched back decades.
The two-year window of 1918–1919 coincides with severe wartime shipping disruptions affecting inter-island commerce throughout the region.