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5 Shillings
| Issuer | Government of Grenada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound sterling (1822-1965) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Blue on olive-green guilloche underprint. The title "The Government of GRENADA" is inscribed across the upper portion, with the legal tender clause below in script lettering. A large denomination panel reading "FIVE SHILLINGS" occupies the centre, with the numeral "5/-" in a geometric vignette to the left. An intaglio portrait of King George V in right profile is set within an ornate oval frame at the right, flanked by fine lathe-work borders. The place and date "St. George's, 1st July 1920" appear below centre, with signature lines for the Colonial Treasurer and Colonial Secretary. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown on white paper. The design is entirely ornamental, centred on an oval intaglio vignette of a square-rigged sailing vessel at sea, enclosed within a series of concentric guilloche rosettes and foliate scrollwork. Numeral "5/-" counters in scalloped frames appear at the left and right, with the denomination "FIVE SHILLINGS" lettered in each of the four corners. |
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| Comments |
Grenada's 1920 5 Shillings is one of the earliest government-issued notes for the island, predating the unified Eastern Caribbean currency arrangements by decades. At this point Grenada was a British Crown Colony, and the issue came under colonial treasury authority rather than any central bank — an arrangement common to small island possessions that lacked the transaction volume to justify a full banking infrastructure.
De La Rue's involvement here is entirely expected; the firm handled the vast majority of British colonial small-denomination issues during this period. What makes this note genuinely scarce is the limited original print run combined with heavy use in a tropical climate that was hard on paper currency.