2 1/2 Dollars

Private banknotes issued by mercantile firms were common in Fiji before formal colonial banking arrived, and Brewer & Joske were among the handful of Suva traders willing to back their own paper. The firm operated as a general merchant and land agency — their notes functioned essentially as promissory instruments, circulating locally on the strength of the issuer's commercial reputation rather than any statutory guarantee.

S. T. Leigh & Co. of Sydney handled a considerable volume of colonial job printing across the Pacific during this period. The denomination itself — two and a half dollars — reflects Fiji's dollar-based currency system in use before British annexation in 1874 formally displaced it with sterling.