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5 Shillings
| Issuer | Fiji Banking and Commercial Company Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1871 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5 SHILLINGS FIJI 5 SHILLINGS Banking and Commercial Company Limited. LEVUKA On Demand We Promise to Pay the Bearer FIVE SHILLINGS Sterling 5 SHILLINGS |
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| Reverse lettering | Sa na voli dodonu na Ceba oqo e nai lavo dina e lima na silini (Translation: This note shall be exchanged for the exact value of 5 Shillings) |
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| Comments |
The Fiji Banking and Commercial Company was a short-lived colonial institution, incorporated in Sydney and operating in Fiji during the unsettled period before formal British annexation in 1874. That political ambiguity matters here: Fiji had no sovereign government with a functioning treasury, and private banks filled the vacuum. Notes like this one circulated alongside a chaotic mix of colonial scrip, foreign coins, and plantation barter tokens.
S. T. Leigh & Co. were primarily commercial printers — jobbing work, stationery, trade forms — not specialist security printers. That background is visible in how these notes were produced, without the intaglio sophistication of a De La Rue or Bradbury Wilkinson contract.
Survivors are extremely rare. Pick 19 predates the Cakobau government's own note issues and the entire Crown Colony period.