Catalog
10 Rupees Kandy; Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866-1872 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress and intaglio print on white paper. The British royal arms supported by lion and unicorn beneath a crown appears as the central top vignette, flanked by two oval panels each inscribed "TEN RUPEES / 10". A guilloche underprint fills the central text area, with the bank name and promise-to-pay text in script and bold letterpress below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | රුපියල් දහය பத்துரூபாய் TEN RUPEES 10 INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER KANDY, CEYLON 15th, March 1866 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. (Translation: Ten Rupees.) |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation was chartered in London in 1851 and became one of the dominant exchange banks operating across British colonial Asia, with Kandy serving as an interior Ceylon branch secondary to Colombo. These notes circulated in the hill country during the coffee plantation boom, when Kandy was a commercial hub for the central highlands trade. The bank collapsed spectacularly in 1884, and surviving branch notes from the 1866–1872 window are genuinely uncommon.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch — the firm behind many colonial security printings of the period — used steel intaglio engraving, the same technology they applied to postage stamps, giving the paper a characteristic ink relief detectable by touch.