5 Dollars

Barclays Bank (DCO) was formed in 1925 through the amalgamation of Colonial Bank, Anglo-Egyptian Bank, and the National Bank of South Africa — this note, issued just a year later, represents one of the earliest emissions under the newly consolidated brand. The DCO division operated as a semi-autonomous overseas arm, issuing its own currency instruments across British colonial territories, which is why these notes carry a private bank designation rather than a government one.

Bradbury, Wilkinson's New Malden facility handled much of the British colonial private bank work during this period. The single-watermark security on notes of this vintage is modest by later standards, and the cotton substrate was common to the whole DCO issue series of the 1920s.