The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was one of the major British overseas banks operating under Royal Charter, and its Hong Kong-issued dollar notes competed directly with those of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. By 1929 the dollar branch of the business was well established, but the timing of this issue placed it squarely against the onset of the Great Depression and the severe disruption to China trade that followed through the early 1930s.
Waterlow & Sons produced the printing, as they did for much of the Chartered Bank's colonial currency work during this period. High-denomination notes of this series are genuinely rare in any grade — $100 saw limited everyday circulation and most were retired through interbank clearing rather than public hands.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was one of the major British overseas banks operating under Royal Charter, and its Hong Kong-issued dollar notes competed directly with those of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. By 1929 the dollar branch of the business was well established, but the timing of this issue placed it squarely against the onset of the Great Depression and the severe disruption to China trade that followed through the early 1930s.
Waterlow & Sons produced the printing, as they did for much of the Chartered Bank's colonial currency work during this period. High-denomination notes of this series are genuinely rare in any grade — $100 saw limited everyday circulation and most were retired through interbank clearing rather than public hands.