Catalog
100 Dollars
| Issuer | Asiatic Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in red and green on white paper, with Chinese characters reading 亞西亞國銀行 at top and bottom borders and 大銀壹百圓 vertically on both lateral margins. The central vignette bears the circular seal of the Asiatic Banking Corporation flanked by two oval panels each inscribed ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS, with the denomination 100 repeated in all four corners. Below, a letterpress promise-to-pay text reads: THE ASIATIC BANKING CORPORATION promise to pay the Bearer on Demand at their Branch in HONG KONG in Local Currency the Sum of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS Value received, with manuscript lines for place, date, and signature lines for Enterer and Manager. |
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| Obverse lettering | 亞西亞國銀行 大銀壹百圓 ASIATIC BANKING CORPORATION ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS 100 THE ASIATIC BANKING CORPORATION promise to pay the Bearer on Demand at their Branch in HONG KONG in Local Currency the Sum of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS Value received. HONG KONG By order of the Court of Directors. Ent. Manager |
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The Asiatic Banking Corporation was a British overseas bank founded in 1863, operating primarily across India, China, and parts of Southeast Asia. It collapsed in 1866 — just three years after incorporation — during the catastrophic Overend, Gurney & Company crisis that swept through London's credit markets and took several colonial banking ventures down with it. A 100-dollar note from this issuer is therefore not merely scarce; it belongs to one of the shortest-lived foreign banking operations in the region's nineteenth-century history.
Surviving examples from this series are exceptionally rare precisely because circulation was so brief.