Catalog
10 Rupees
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation, Haldamulle |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870-1880 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Rupee (1837-date) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | TEN RUPEES INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER. HALDAMULLE, CEYLON THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Branch here or at their Bank in Colombo TEN RUPEES Value received. By order of the Court of Directors, |
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| Protection type | Guilloche underprint |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation, chartered in Bombay in 1842 and eventually headquartered in London, operated across South and Southeast Asia before its spectacular collapse in 1884 — one of the more dramatic banking failures of the Victorian era. Haldamulle was a tea estate in Ceylon, and the branch there served the plantation economy directly; these notes likely functioned as a form of local wage or transaction currency within that agricultural system rather than circulating widely in general commerce.
The bank's failure means surviving branch-issued paper is genuinely scarce, particularly from estate-level offices.