Catalog
5 Shillings - George VI Date at left
| Issuer | Bermuda Government |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
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| Currency | Pound sterling (1158-1970) |
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| Obverse description | Brown intaglio print on a multicolour guilloche underprint, with black serial numbers. A left-facing portrait of King George VI appears at upper centre, with a vignette of Hamilton Harbour occupying the lower centre. The issue date is positioned at left. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | FIVE SHILLINGS 5/- Honi soit qui mal y pense Dieu et mon droit BRADBURY, WILKINSON & Co. Ltd. NEW MALDEN, SURREY, ENGLAND (Translation: Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it. God and my right.) |
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| Comments |
The 1947 date places this note squarely in Bermuda's postwar transition period, when the colonial government was still issuing under royal authority but the territory's economic relationship with the United States — cemented by the 1941 base-lease agreement — had fundamentally reoriented the island away from sterling as a practical currency. American dollars circulated alongside British colonial notes throughout this period, which drove heavy transactional wear on low-denomination paper like this shilling issue.
Bradbury, Wilkinson produced the majority of British colonial small-denomination notes through the 1940s from their New Malden works, and the P#14 series reflects their characteristic intaglio quality. Pick 14 was superseded by the 1952 Elizabeth II issue following George VI's death in February of that year.