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20 Dollars Government Issue
| Issuer | Government of British Guiana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Dollars |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Violet on green underprint with black serial numbers, date, and signatures. The central vignette presents a waterfall scene, with a toucan vignette at left and a ship seal at right. The overall design employs fine guilloche patterning typical of Waterlow & Sons engraving work of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 20 20 WATERLOW & SONS LIMITED, LONDON |
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| Comments |
British Guiana's wartime currency arrangements were complicated by the fact that the colony's commercial banks — Barclays, Royal Bank of Canada, the British Guiana Bank — normally handled note issuance. A direct Government issue in 1942 signals an emergency measure, almost certainly tied to wartime demand outpacing what the established banking channels could supply.
Waterlow & Sons printed the series in London despite active Blitz risk — the firm's Finsbury printing works had already taken bomb damage earlier in the war. The P#16 twenty-dollar denomination would have represented substantial purchasing power in the colony, likely limiting its day-to-day handling and contributing to the relative scarcity of circulated survivors in this series.