10 Shillings

The Oriental Bank Corporation — originally chartered in Bombay in 1842 as the Bank of Western India before rebranding — was one of the first joint-stock banks operating across British colonial Asia. Its Colombo branch served Ceylon's plantation economy at exactly the moment sugar and coffee exports were reshaping the island's commercial life. Notes issued by private colonial banks of this period carried no government guarantee; their value rested entirely on the bank's own reserves and reputation.

Leighton & London was a minor London trade printer, not a specialist security firm, which is worth noting — the engraving quality on Oriental Bank Corporation colonial issues varies considerably across the series. P#147D is among the rarer surviving branch-designated examples from this issuer.