1 Shilling - George VI

The Bermuda Government's 1939 shilling issue preceded the wartime currency controls that would tighten colonial monetary policy across the British Atlantic within months of its release. Bermuda at this point still operated as a relatively autonomous currency jurisdiction, and these small-denomination notes were a practical concession to the near-constant shortage of coin in island circulation — a problem that plagued small British territories long before the war complicated shipping.

Bradbury Wilkinson's New Malden facility was the default choice for British colonial fiduciary issues of this period, and their intaglio work on low-denomination colonial notes tends to be technically superior to the commercial importance of the piece. The 1939 date places this at the very start of the George VI Bermuda series, making it the earliest type in a run that would extend through the wartime years.