10 Dollars

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China occupied an unusual structural position in imperial finance — it was one of a handful of exchange banks authorized to issue notes across multiple British territories simultaneously, with the same note legally tender in branches from Shanghai to Singapore to Bombay. The $10 denomination in this series circulated primarily in the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong branches, where dollar-denominated trade financing dominated.

Notes from this window are scarce. The bank routinely destroyed returned notes rather than reissuing them, a deliberate policy to maintain quality in circulation — meaning survivors skew toward either uncirculated remainders or notes that left the banking system entirely before redemption.