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500 Dollars
| Issuer | Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Brown and multicolour note with the bank's Chinese title 香港上海滙豐銀行 set in a decorative header at top, flanked by two intaglio vignettes — a rural scene with water buffalo and ploughman at left, and a hillside colonial settlement at right. The central panel carries a dense guilloche underprint bearing the bank's ornate arms, with the promise-to-pay text and denomination FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in bold letterpress below, and the place and date of issue HONGKONG, 1st January, 1915 above the signature lines for the Chief Accountant and Chief Manager by order of the Board of Directors. A large red SPECIMEN overprint is applied diagonally across the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in rose-brown and purple tones, the reverse centres on a large oval intaglio vignette of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation's imposing classical head-office building in Hong Kong, surrounded by dense guilloche latticework. Chinese denomination characters 伍佰圓 appear in the upper corners, with the numeral 500 at lower left and right, and the legend FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS running vertically along both side borders within the guilloche frame. The printer's imprint WATERLOW & SONS LIMITED, LONDON is present in the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Waterlow & Sons held the contract for HSBC's higher-denomination notes during this period, printing in London for circulation in Hong Kong — a logistical arrangement that meant sheets crossed considerable distance before reaching a teller's hands. The 1915 date places this note squarely in the disruption of wartime shipping and tightened credit conditions across British colonial banking networks, when large-denomination notes moved more through interbank settlement than retail trade.
At this level of denomination, surviving examples are genuinely rare. The note's cotton substrate and single watermark security reflects the printing standards of the period — modest by later measure, but considered adequate for a denomination that few ordinary depositors would ever handle directly.