5 Pounds

The Government of Tonga series to which this note belongs predates the establishment of the National Reserve Bank by decades — Tonga operated direct government note issuance well into the postwar period, unusual for a Pacific territory with close British ties. Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London, as they did for dozens of colonial and protectorate governments simultaneously, meaning the physical quality is consistently high even in worn examples.

The 24-year issue window is the telling detail here. Notes dated across that span circulated on an island economy with limited banking infrastructure, and high-denomination paper in that environment tends to survive either very clean or very rough — little middle ground.