10 Shillings

The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the "exchange banks" that dominated colonial trade finance in Asia from the 1850s onward — funded in London, operating across Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, and Ceylon, moving money between ports rather than serving local retail depositors. Its Colombo branch was a minor node in that network, and Ceylon-issued notes from this bank are among the rarest surviving examples from the series. Most private bank paper in colonial Ceylon was retired quickly as the government tightened control over note issue during the 1860s and 1870s.

Perkins Bacon's steel-engraved guilloche work is immediately recognizable, borrowed from the same technical repertoire the firm used for postage stamps and government securities worldwide.