The following are from Malaysia Brunei & Singapore Banknote & Coins 8th Edition by KN Boon about the history of Straits Settlement banknote.
Queen Victoria(1837 - 1901)
The Straits Settlement Government was given the authority to print the Government Banknote through Ordinance VIII. "The Chartered Bank " and the "The Hong Kong & Shangai Bank" continued to print their banknote. Later all free trade Banknotes were ordered to stop trading and changed to Mexican Dollar or Silver Dollar. During this period, the official Settlement banknotes were printed by Thomas de la rue Co. Ltd., London.
King Edward VII(1901-1910)
During King Edward's reign, the Straits settlement Government introduced a new series of banknotes dated 1 February 1901. Due to the sudden price increase of silver in early 1900, the Government withdrew the silver dollar and exchanged for a lower intrinsic silver coin. Worried of shortage coins, one dollar silver banknote was issued. It was based according to the exchange rate of gold, instead of silver. Subsequently, the British gold notes were widely distributed and it was based on the exchange rate of 2 shillings 4 pence on the sterling. This reduced the usage of the silver coin dollars.
King George V (1910 - 1936)
During his period of reign, a new denomination of 50, 100, and 1000 dollars banknote was issued in 1915. There were also 10,000 dollars banknotes, but this was only limited to the use of banks for inter-transaction among them. At the end of World War I, Straits Government also launched low-value banknotes of 10 cents and 25 cents, and they were widely circulated until the Japanese Invasion. During this period, the official banknotes were printed by Thomas de la Rue Co. Ltd, London, and Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd. , New Malden, Surrey, London.
Informative