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10 Pounds Sterling
| Issuer | Cape Commercial Bank, Potchefstroom Branch |
|---|---|
| Year | 1879 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is laid out in a largely typographic style typical of colonial-era South African private bank issues. At the top centre, the issuer's name CAPE COMMERCIAL BANK is printed in bold letterpress, with POTCHEFSTROOM and BRANCH flanking a central vignette of a pastoral landscape with figures. The denomination TEN POUNDS appears in an oval cartouche at the upper right, while a further TEN POUNDS oval vignette is set at lower left; the text panel bears the promise-to-pay clause reading 'We Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand at our Office here TEN POUNDS Sterling being for Value received,' with manuscript date, serial number, and the Manager's signature beneath the printed legend 'By order of the Board of Directors.' |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | TEN |
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| Comments |
The Cape Commercial Bank was a relatively short-lived institution that collapsed in 1890, and its Potchefstroom branch operated in what was then the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek — meaning this note crossed a political boundary, issued by a Cape Colony-chartered bank but payable in a Transvaal town. That arrangement was not unusual for the period, but it made these notes legally ambiguous tender in a territory that viewed foreign banking institutions with considerable suspicion.
Potchefstroom was the original capital of the ZAR before Pretoria assumed that role, which gave the branch a prominence that outlasted its political relevance. Very few branch-specific notes from the Cape Commercial Bank survive in any denomination.