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5 Shillings
| Issuer | Bank of Nassau |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Shillings |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on cream-coloured paper and bears a central issuer title, THE BANK OF NASSAU, in large bold serif lettering, with a vignette of a sailing ship within a circular frame at the left inscribed BAHAMA and EXPULSIS PIRATA RESTITUTA COMMERCIA. A portrait vignette of a male figure in formal attire is enclosed in an oval frame at the right. The denomination FIVE SHILLINGS appears in a guilloche panel at the upper right and again in bold lettering at centre, with a promise-to-pay text reading Hereby promises to pay to BEARER on demand the sum of FIVE SHILLINGS, and a security clause referencing Government Securities or Coin deposited with the Receiver General and Treasurer. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, displaying plain cream-coloured cotton paper with no design elements, vignettes, or inscriptions, consistent with the format of early colonial Bahamian currency of this period. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Nassau was a private commercial bank — not a government institution — chartered under Bahamian law and issuing its own notes in competition with British colonial currency during the late Victorian period. That arrangement was already unusual for a territory of its size, and the bank's circulation privileges were tightly constrained by the colonial administration in London.
The A4B designation suggests a sub-variety within the series, likely differentiated by signature combination or minor plate revision. Pick listings for this issuer are thin, and surviving examples are genuinely rare — the bank's total note-issuing lifespan was short, and Bahamian humidity is not kind to cotton-substrate paper left in circulation or private storage.