Catalog
5 Pounds - George VI Maroon
| Issuer | Government of Jamaica |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of King George VI in military uniform within an oval vignette at left, set against a maroon guilloche underprint that extends across the face. The denomination £5 appears in large numerals at right within an ornate rosette, with the date and signature of the Chairman of the Commissioners of Currency inscribed across the centre. The printer's imprint of Thomas De La Rue & Company Limited, London, runs along the lower margin. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Issued under wartime authority, this note belongs to a short-lived series produced for Jamaica while the island remained under British colonial administration and dollar convertibility was tightly controlled by London. The 1942 dating places it squarely within the sterling area's wartime exchange restrictions, when the movement of Jamaican currency was subject to the same Treasury controls applied across British possessions.
De La Rue produced the series in London despite active Luftwaffe bombing campaigns — the firm's Bunhill Row premises had been destroyed in the Blitz the previous year, forcing operations to dispersed sites. High-denomination colonial notes from this period are disproportionately scarce; wartime shipping losses and post-war redemption programs eliminated much of the surviving stock.