Catalog
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| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1910 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio printing on yellow guilloche underprint, with the Royal Arms vignette at upper centre flanked by two circular $20 denomination counters at left and right. A bold promise-to-pay text in copperplate script occupies the centre field, with the place of issue GEORGETOWN, DEMERARY below, and a rectangular TWENTY DOLLARS panel at lower left. The note is overprinted SPECIMEN in red and carries three cancellation punch holes at lower centre, with the printer's imprint visible at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COLONIAL BANK We Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of TWENTY DOLLARS GEORGETOWN, DEMERARY By order of the Court of Directors of the Colonial Bank TWENTY DOLLARS BRITISH GUIANA SPECIMEN MANAGER ACCOUNTT Entd INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER 1836 |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank was a British-chartered institution operating primarily across the British West Indies and British Guiana, eventually absorbed into Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in 1926. Notes of this period were printed in London and shipped to branch offices for issue — the bank itself had no local printing capacity.
Perkins, Bacon had been producing security printing for colonial banking clients since the mid-nineteenth century, using steel-intaglio techniques originally refined for postage stamps. Their work is generally resistant to amateur counterfeiting, which suited issuers whose circulation territories had limited detection infrastructure.
The S-prefix in the Pick reference denotes a private commercial bank issue rather than a government or central bank obligation.