1 Dollar

The British North Borneo Chartered Company was a private commercial enterprise granted sovereign administrative authority over what is now Sabah in 1881 — one of the last instances of a trading company being permitted to govern territory and issue its own currency under a British royal charter. The company's banknotes circulated alongside coinage it also struck, functioning as the de facto monetary system of the territory for decades.

Bradbury, Wilkinson's engraving quality on this series is notably high for a colonial commercial issue, reflecting the company's interest in projecting institutional credibility to a skeptical merchant community. The date range spanning 1886 to 1920 covers the entire formative period of company administration, ending just before the currency was rationalized following postwar reorganization of British Borneo's finances.