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5 Dollars Colonial Bank
| Issuer | Colonial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black on cream paper, the note bears the Royal Arms vignette at upper centre flanked by two oval guilloche medallions each enclosing the denomination numeral '$5'. The legend 'Issued at TRINIDAD Branch, PORT OF SPAIN' appears diagonally in manuscript style text on either side of the arms. The lower portion carries a promise-to-pay text in copperplate script, the date '1st June 1888', the place of issue 'BRIDGETOWN', and a rectangular guilloche panel inscribed 'FIVE DOLLARS' at lower left. Two manuscript signatures appear above the designations MANAGER and ACCOUNTANT, issued by order of the Court of Directors of the Colonial Bank. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COLONIAL BANK BARBADOS Issued at TRINIDAD Branch PORT OF SPAIN We Promise to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of FIVE DOLLARS 1st June 1888 BRIDGETOWN By order of the Court of Directors of the Colonial Bank FIVE DOLLARS MANAGER ACCOUNT. |
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| Comments |
The Colonial Bank operated across the British West Indies from its founding in 1836, eventually absorbed into Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) in 1925. By 1888 the bank had branches throughout Barbados, Trinidad, British Guiana, and several of the smaller Leeward and Windward Islands, and notes issued under the single "Colonial Bank" name circulated across multiple currencies and islands simultaneously — an unusual arrangement that makes precise attribution of individual specimens genuinely difficult.
Perkins, Bacon & Co. were the dominant security printers for British colonial currency throughout this period, and their intaglio work on Colonial Bank notes is characteristically fine. Serial numbering and branch designation were typically added after the sheets left London.