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10 Rupees Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870 |
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| Size | 175 x 113 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress and intaglio print on plain paper. The Royal Arms vignette is centrally positioned at top, encircled by the legend "INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER"; denomination numerals "10" appear in oval cartouches at left and right, flanked by Sinhalese and Tamil scripts. A fine engine-turned guilloche border frames the note, with the promise-to-pay text in italic script across the centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH රුපියල් දහයයි பத்து ரூபாய் 10 RUPEES INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER COLOMBO, 1st July. 1870 THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on demand here TEN RUPEES, value received. By order of the Court of Directors, Entd. ACCOUNTT. MANAGER PERKINS, BACON & Co, LONDON. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank was incorporated by royal charter in 1853, making it one of the earlier exchange banks operating across the Eastern trade routes. By 1870 it held branches from Bombay and Calcutta through to Shanghai and Yokohama, and these notes circulated across an extraordinarily diffuse geography — the same issue was payable at multiple branches, which complicated both redemption and forgery detection considerably.
Perkins, Bacon had perfected steel-plate engraving and security printing for colonial banking clients across the mid-nineteenth century, and their work for the Mercantile Bank is among the finer examples of the period. The bank was eventually absorbed into the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1959 after a long decline in its branch network.