The history of Britain’s colonial empire and that of our private banks are often intimately intertwined.

I am reminded of this by an auction by Spink & Son of a rare Sarawak $1 banknote produced under the rule of a colourful British colonial dynasty. Said note has just gone under the hammer for a rather useful £27,000.

It dates back to the reign of the White Rajahs, otherwise known as the Brooke dynasty, which ruled the state of Sarawak in northern Borneo for more than 100 years.