Catalog & market information for bank notes issued by Colonial Bank

On 1 June 1836, the Colonial Bank (COL) was founded by royal charter to trade in the West Indies. In 1916, an Act of Parliament was obtained to allow the Colonial Bank to extend its operations throughout the British Empire, and it began to open offices in West Africa. In 1917, a further act permitted the bank to open in any part of the world. According to The DCO Story, the Colonial Bank had opened an office in Saint Thomas in 1837 and a sub-branch at Frederiksted on Saint Croix. The sub-branch was closed in 1879, but the main branch continued until 1916 while Saint Thomas was still under Danish rule. The Colonial Bank’s Saint Thomas office also briefly controlled sub-branches in Puerto Rico (closed 1848) and Venezuela (closed by 1851). In 1966, Barclays Bank DCO opened a new branch at Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, by then part of the US Virgin Islands.