10 Pounds

The Oriental Bank Corporation — chartered in Bombay in 1842 as the Bank of Western India before rebranding — expanded aggressively into Ceylon in the 1840s, operating as one of the first exchange banks to link Colombo directly to London capital markets. This note dates from that early period of establishment, when the branch was still building local credibility against entrenched agency houses.

Batho & Bingley handled security printing for several colonial and commercial banking clients during this period, though they never achieved the profile of Perkins Bacon. A Ceylon ten-pound denomination from this era would have been instrument-grade paper, moving between merchants and planters — not retail currency in any ordinary sense.

Survivors from the 1846–1850 window are exceptionally rare.