Catalog
5 Dollars Colonial Bank
| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918-1920 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The supported Royal Arms vignette occupies the upper centre, flanked by the engraved bank title "COLONIAL BANK" in large bold lettering above. The denomination "FIVE DOLLARS" appears in an ornate guilloche panel at the lower centre, with numeral "5" counters set within decorative foliate cartouches at each corner. The place of issue "PORT OF SPAIN TRINIDAD" is inscribed at lower left, with the date and serial number at lower right, and two manuscript signatures of the Accountant and Manager appear along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | COLONIAL BANK INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER 1836 |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank operated across the British West Indies and British Guiana for over a century before being absorbed by Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in 1925 — this note dates from the final years of the bank's independent operation. Perkins, Bacon & Co. had an established relationship with colonial banking institutions across the Empire, and their security printing methods, particularly steel engraving and geometric lathe work, were specifically chosen to frustrate local counterfeiting in territories where detection capacity was limited.
Pick S135 is scarcer than the bank's earlier issues, the 1918–1920 window being a period of considerable commercial disruption in the Caribbean tied to post-war commodity price volatility.