5 Shillings - George V

Jamaica's Treasury notes of this type were authorized under wartime emergency powers, a direct response to the hoarding of coin that gripped the Caribbean colonies after 1914. Small silver disappeared from circulation almost immediately — soldiers needed metal, and islanders knew it. Paper substitutes at fractional denominations were the Colonial Office's solution, pushed through quickly and without much appetite for elaborate design.

De La Rue produced the series in London under conditions already strained by wartime print demands. P#28 is among the scarcer denominations from this issue, as five-shilling notes turned over rapidly in everyday trade and few survived intact.