5 Dollars Government Issue

British Guiana's Government Issue notes of this period were a direct consequence of the colonial administration's reluctance to establish a proper central bank — the Government of British Guiana continued issuing currency under its own authority well into the mid-twentieth century, an arrangement that was increasingly anomalous among British Caribbean territories by the late 1930s.

Waterlow & Sons handled the printing at their London works, as they did for a considerable portion of Britain's colonial paper currency during this period. The series spans a narrow wartime window, and notes dated toward the 1942 end of the range were produced under the disruptions of the London Blitz, which periodically affected Waterlow's operations on Finsbury Square.