Catalog
5 Dollars Colonial Bank
| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The supported royal arms vignette occupies the centre of the note, flanked by ornate guilloche panels bearing the numeral 5 in each corner. The bank title COLONIAL BANK arches across the top in bold letterpress, with the promise-to-pay legend and incorporation clause arranged around the central arms. The date 1st February 1917 and the designation BRIDGETOWN BARBADOS appear in the lower portion, with a manuscript manager's signature below the central vignette; the printer's imprint of Perkins Bacon & Co. is present at the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COLONIAL BANK INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER 1836 PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT ITS OFFICE HERE ISSUED AT ST. VINCENT BRANCH FIVE DOLLARS BRIDGETOWN BARBADOS |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank was a British-chartered institution operating across the West Indies and British Guiana, ultimately absorbed into Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in 1926. By 1917, wartime pressures on shipping and banking supply chains made note replenishment from London a logistical problem, which likely accounts for the relatively small surviving populations of this issue across all denominations.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch had held the Colonial Bank contract for decades by this point, using their established intaglio methods. The S115 designation places it firmly in the specialist rather than central-bank series — issued by a commercial chartered bank, not a colonial government authority.