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10 Shillings Kandy; Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1864-1869 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH රුපියල් පහයි ரூபாய் ஐந்து TEN SHILLINGS INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER KANDY THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on demand at its Branch in KANDY, in the Currency of the Island TEN SHILLINGS, Value received. By order of the Court of Directors, Entd. ACCOUNTT. MANAGER පවුඬ් බාගයයි அரைப் பவுண்ட் (Translation: Five rupees. Half pound.) |
| Reverse description | Plain brown print on unguilloched paper. Four symmetrically placed oval lathe-work rosette panels occupy each corner, with a central rectangular panel bearing the denomination "TEN SHILLINGS" in large white serif letters on a brown guilloche background. The printer's imprint appears in small text at the lower margin. |
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The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was granted its charter in 1853 and became one of the principal exchange banks operating across British Asia, competing directly with the Oriental Bank and later the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation for trade finance business. Its Kandy branch served the Ceylon tea and coffee planting economy at a moment when that industry was still largely coffee — the devastating *Hemileia vastatrix* fungus that would destroy Ceylon's coffee plantations didn't fully take hold until the early 1870s.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the dominant security printers for colonial currency in this period, their intaglio work making crude hand-alteration of denominations or payee fields considerably more difficult. The bank was absorbed into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1892.