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1 Dollar
| Issuer | Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 香港上海滙理銀行 THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION HONG KONG ONE DOLLAR By Order of the Board of Directors 壹員 港香 |
| Reverse description | Printed in purple-mauve on plain paper, the reverse is dominated by an elaborate lathe-work oval frame enclosing a central vignette of rearing horses and foliate scrollwork. Four corner roundels each bear the numeral '1', while two lateral ovals carry the word 'ONE'. Circular legends around the upper arc read 'THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI' and the lower arc 'BANKING CORPORATION', completing the corporate identification in a wholly ornamental, engraved composition. |
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| Comments |
The Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation was only eight years old when this note was issued, having opened in 1865 under a special ordinance of the Hong Kong colonial government rather than a Royal Charter — an unusual arrangement that gave it local autonomy other colonial banks lacked. The dollar denomination placed it squarely in everyday commerce, though HSBC's early notes circulated across a remarkably wide geographic range, turning up in Shanghai, Yokohama, and Calcutta branches as well as Hong Kong.
The dual printer credit — Novia & Co. alongside Bradbury & Wilkinson — suggests a local finishing or overprinting arrangement, with Bradbury Wilkinson handling the intaglio security work in London. 1873 examples are genuinely rare; most of the bank's nineteenth-century paper was destroyed or redeemed during periodic currency reforms.