10 Rupees Jaffna; Oriental Bank Corporation

The Oriental Bank Corporation collapsed in May 1884, making any note issued in its final years a document of institutional failure rather than commercial confidence. Founded in Bombay in 1842 and granted a Royal Charter in 1851, the bank overextended itself across Ceylon, India, and the Pacific — bad harvests, falling commodity prices, and reckless lending to sugar and coffee planters brought it down. Bradbury Wilkinson handled the print work from London throughout the bank's later years.

The Jaffna designation is the telling detail. Jaffna was a northern Ceylon branch town, not a regional banking center of any weight — its appearance as the place of payment reflects how thoroughly the OBC had threaded itself into provincial commerce before the collapse wiped out depositors across the island.