5 Pounds

The Southern Rhodesia Currency Board was a transitional institution, running from 1940 until the establishment of the Central African Currency Board in 1954, which absorbed Southern Rhodesia into a shared monetary arrangement with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This note falls at the very end of the Currency Board's independent operation — the 1953–54 date range means examples could have been issued just months before that federation-era restructuring rendered the issuing authority obsolete.

Bradbury Wilkinson printed for colonial boards across the British Empire throughout this period, and their work for Southern Rhodesia is competent but not among their more elaborate commissions. The watermark is the sole mechanical security feature, typical for the territory's higher denominations at the time.