10 Shillings

The Bahamas Government issued this note under the Currency Act of 1919, which established a formal government currency for the islands separate from the commercial bank notes that had previously circulated alongside British sterling. The Canadian Bank Note Company had by this point become a preferred printer for British colonial currencies across the Caribbean — cost, security, and reliable intaglio quality all factored into those relationships.

The 10 Shillings denomination was always the awkward middle ground in Bahamian currency, too small for substantial transactions but too large for everyday trade. Surviving examples from this 1919 issue are genuinely rare; the tropical humidity of the islands destroyed most notes in circulation, and the quantities originally printed were modest.