Catalog
5 Dollars - Charles Brooke
| Issuer | Government of Sarawak |
|---|---|
| Year | 1877 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1868-1946) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black and grey, the note carries a portrait vignette of Rajah Charles Brooke in the upper left, with a central vignette at the top showing Baroness Burdett-Coutts before a sailing vessel. The Coat of Arms of Sarawak appears within the design, flanked by the denomination expressed in Arabic and Chinese script within the bordered frame. Numeral value repeats in each corner of the frame, with the written denomination centered on the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5 SARAWAK 5 FIVE FIVE DOLLARS 5 5 |
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| Comments |
Sarawak's first paper currency was issued under Rajah Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah, who inherited the territory from his uncle James in 1868. The Government of Sarawak was a genuine personal rulership — not a colonial administration — and these notes were issued under Brooke's direct authority rather than through any British Crown mechanism. Perkins, Bacon & Co. had long experience printing security documents for remote and unusual issuers, and their London presses produced the entire early Sarawak note series.
The 1877 date places this squarely in the series' first year of issue, before the territory had established reliable banking infrastructure of its own.