Description and research notes
One of the earliest surviving issued notes of the Mauritius Commercial Bank—the oldest banking institution in the Indian Ocean—this 1839 Twenty Dollar / Four Pounds Sterling note is a foundational artifact of Mauritian monetary history. Issued only one year after the bank’s founding in 1838, it belongs to the first generation of fully functional colonial paper money used on the island. These early issues circulated at a time when coin shortages were severe, and private banknotes became the primary medium of exchange for merchants, plantation owners, and shipping houses.
Printed by Myers Frs. & Co. of London, the note displays the earliest state of the Port Louis harbor vignette, a detailed maritime scene portraying the colony’s commercial lifeline. This vignette—used later in modified form on the 1842 and 1843 series—stands among the first engraved representations of Mauritius ever to appear on paper money. The absence of the later red overprint reinforces its status as the first design generation in Mauritius’ dual-currency (dollars / sterling) lineage.
The bilingual denomination structure is historically significant. The dollar currency catered to local valuation habits, while the sterling equivalent ('Four Pounds Sterling') reflected British commercial norms and enabled international settlement through London. Mauritius in the late 1830s was still grappling with the economic restructuring that followed the abolition of slavery (1835–1839), and the Mauritius Commercial Bank played a central stabilizing role by issuing redeemable paper during a period of extreme liquidity stress.
This example is fully issued, hand-numbered, hand-signed, and subsequently stamped CANCELLED—direct evidence that it circulated in real commercial traffic before the bank redeemed it. Very few 1830s Mauritius notes of any denomination survive in issued and cancelled form. High denominations such as Twenty Dollars were primarily used by exporters, customs brokers, and merchants conducting large-volume trade in sugar, textiles, shipping freight, or bonded storage. These notes typically had short lifespans and were systematically destroyed upon redemption.
Myers Frs. & Co. represents the earliest wave of London engravers to supply the island, preceding Waterlow, Perkins Bacon, and De La Rue. Their Mauritius output was limited, and very few printed notes from this early period survive in any condition. The combination of early date, high denomination, full issuance, and complete cancellation marks places this note among the most critical documents of the island’s monetary origins.
Rarity is severe. PMG census lists only 15 total graded examples for Pick S125 across all grades and subtypes. Surviving raw pieces in private hands and institutions likely number only a handful more. Combining these yields an estimated total population of approximately <10 extant issued-and-cancelled examples in all conditions, placing the type squarely in the R8 range of rarity. As an intact, fully issued, pre-1840 Mauritius note from the formative period of the island’s banking history, this piece stands as a museum-grade cornerstone for early Indian Ocean finance and colonial economic studies.