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10 Rupees Jaffna; Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Rupees |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper with fine guilloche border. The British Royal Arms vignette is centred at top, flanked by oval cartouches bearing the denomination "TEN RUPEES" and "10" at left and right; Sinhalese and Tamil scripts appear above the cartouches. The promise-to-pay text and issuer name are set in letterpress below, with date and place of issue handwritten. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | රුපියල්දහයයි பத்துரூபாய் TEN 10 RUPEES INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER JAFFNA, CEYLON 1st, Octr, 1873. 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, Entd. Accountt. Agent. Perkins, Bacon & Co, London. Patent Hardened Steel Plate. (Translation: Ten rupees.) |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation held a Royal Charter and operated across British colonial Asia — Ceylon, India, Mauritius, Hong Kong — before collapsing spectacularly in 1884, wiped out largely by bad loans tied to falling coffee prices in Ceylon. This note predates that failure by over a decade, issued from the Jaffna branch in the north of the island during the height of the plantation economy.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the dominant security printers of the period, responsible for a substantial portion of British colonial paper currency worldwide. The Jaffna branch designation is the detail worth noting — branch-specific imprints on OBC notes are uncommon, and the Jaffna office served a predominantly Tamil-speaking trading population with strong commercial ties to southern India.