| Description de l’avers |
Printed in blue and brown on white cotton paper, the obverse carries the heading CEYLON BRANCH at top, flanked by the denomination numeral 10 in scalloped medallions at left and right, with bilingual inscriptions in Sinhalese and Tamil above and below. The centre is occupied by the Royal Arms vignette with the legend INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER, beneath which the place and date of issue read GALLE 1st July 1880. A bold guilloche underprint carries the large brown letterpress legend TEN, overlaid by the promise text in English, the bank title THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA, serial numbers Nº 1616 at both sides, and a Manager signature line at lower right. |
| Légende de l’avers |
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| Description du revers |
The reverse is printed entirely in blue and presents a plain, uncluttered layout on white paper. A large central oval guilloche panel, left blank for overprinting, is flanked on each side by a circular scalloped rosette medallion enclosing the numeral 10, all executed in fine lathe-work typical of the period. |
| Légende du revers |
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| Signature(s) |
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| Type de protection |
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| Description de la protection |
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| Variantes |
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The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the British exchange banks operating under Royal Charter — distinct from the later Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, though the two are frequently conflated. This Galle branch issue is among the rarest surviving examples from Ceylon's private banking period. The bank collapsed in 1893 following a liquidity crisis, and branch note stocks were typically recalled and destroyed at closure, which makes surviving provincial issues disproportionately scarce relative to Colombo counterparts.
Galle was then still a significant entrepôt for the southern Indian Ocean trade routes, though by 1880 its commercial dominance was already being eroded by the expansion of Colombo harbour.