Catalog
5 Pounds
| Issuer | African Banking Corporation Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse carries an oval intaglio vignette at the left depicting a seated classical female figure. The issuer's name AFRICAN BANKING CORPORATION LIMITED is printed in bold letterpress across the upper portion, with a RHODESIA ISSUE overprint in a rectangular panel at the top centre. A guilloche underprint fills the central field, over which the promise-to-pay text reads payable on demand to the bearer at Cape Town. The denomination FIVE POUNDS appears in large bold type at centre, repeated in a decorative starburst cartouche at right, with FIVE lettered vertically at the far right margin. The note bears printed serial number range indicators and spaces for ACCOUNTANT and MANAGER signatures at lower centre, with a CANCELLED overprint across the signature panel. |
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| Obverse lettering | AFRICAN BANKING CORPORATION LIMITED RHODESIA ISSUE Promise to pay On Demand to the Bearer AT CAPE TOWN the sum of FIVE POUNDS Sterling Bulawayo, 19 FOR African Banking Corporation Limited ACCOUNTANT MANAGER FIVE POUNDS FIVE CANCELLED |
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| Comments |
The African Banking Corporation was a British-registered colonial bank operating branches across southern Africa, including the Transvaal, Cape Colony, and Rhodesia. Its note-issuing activity was concentrated in the 1890s, a period when private bank paper still circulated freely alongside government issues in much of the region. The corporation was eventually absorbed into the Standard Bank of South Africa in 1920, ending its independent identity entirely.
Bradbury Wilkinson's engraved work for colonial issuers of this period is consistently fine, and the cotton substrate they used for southern African clients held up reasonably well in a climate that was hard on paper currency.