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5 Pounds
| Issuer | Bahamas Government |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 142 × 75 mm |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black with a light-red underprint; blue serial numbers appear on the face, with a red seal positioned at the upper left. The note carries extensive letterpress text setting out the legal terms of issue, including treasury receivability and interest provisions, arranged across the surface in a format typical of mid-nineteenth-century colonial government obligations. The overall layout reflects the functional, document-style design conventions of Major & Knapp production from this period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Bahamas Government Receivable in payment of Revenue or in purchase of Debentures at the Public Treasury Nassau, New Providence and bearing legal Interest from the date here of FIVE Pound Sterling £ FIVE TREASURER PUBLIC TREASURY BAHAMAS By order of the Governor Colonial Secretary |
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| Comments |
Major & Knapp was a New York lithographic firm better known for trade cards and illustrated periodicals than for currency printing — their brief window producing government paper spanned the 1860s and 1870s, and the Bahamas contract sits at the more obscure end of their output. The colonial government had no central bank and no local printing infrastructure, so London or American commercial printers handled the work throughout the nineteenth century.
P#A11 is among the earliest documented Bahamian government notes. Surviving examples are exceptionally rare — the small population of the colony, limited commercial need for high-denomination paper, and tropical storage conditions conspired against long-term survival.