| Obverse description |
Black and purple intaglio print on cream paper, with an elaborate guilloche border incorporating foliate and geometric ornaments framing the entire face. The Royal Arms of the United Kingdom vignette appears at upper centre, flanked by the bold serif title THE GOVERNMENT OF THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS; below, a promise-to-pay clause in script lettering leads to the denomination FIVE DOLLARS in a dark letterpress panel at centre. Chinese characters in a panel at top, Jawi script in a panel at bottom, and serial numbers in black appear at upper left, upper right, and lower left and right corners; three manuscript signatures of the Currency Commissioners appear at right centre, with the printed date 1st September, 1898 at lower left. |
| Reverse description |
Black print on cream paper, with no textual inscriptions. A central intaglio vignette set within an ornate cartouche shows a tiger stalking left through rocky, grassy terrain; the surrounding field is filled with a densely worked guilloche of floral rosettes, scrollwork, and foliate ornaments extending to all four corners, with crocodile vignettes worked into the corner medallions. The printer's imprint THOS. DE LA RUE & CO. LTD. LONDON appears in small type at the lower centre of the design. |
The Straits Settlements government notes of this period were a direct response to the chronic shortage of reliable currency across Penang, Malacca, and Singapore — Mexican and other foreign silver dollars had long filled that gap, and confidence in paper was slow to build. De La Rue's involvement brought the same intaglio security standards the firm was applying to colonial issues across the British Empire in the 1890s.
Pick 2 is genuinely scarce. The 1898–1900 window was brief, and the series was superseded relatively quickly as the currency framework for the Straits evolved. Surviving examples in any grade are rarely encountered at auction.