Catalog
100 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1860-1889 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 100 INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER DIEU ET MON DROIT Penang 大銀壹百員 THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK of INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its Branch in PENANG in Local Currency, the sum of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS Value received. By order of the Court of Directors Entd. Acct. MANAGER SPECIMEN |
| Reverse description | Reverse printed on plain white paper, entirely unprinted on its own face but showing a strong blind offset impression of the obverse design through the paper, including the mirrored text of the promise-to-pay panel, the denomination cartouches, and the ornamental border, consistent with the intaglio letterpress production method of Perkins, Bacon & Co. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1857, one of several British overseas banks positioned to service trade flows across the eastern route — Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, Hong Kong. The dollar-denominated notes were issued for Hong Kong circulation, where the bank maintained a branch competing directly against the Oriental Bank Corporation and, later, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
Perkins, Bacon produced the plates using their steel-engraving intaglio process, the same technology they applied to postage stamps — including the Penny Black. Notes of this type in any surviving condition are genuinely rare; the bank went into voluntary liquidation in 1893, and remaining stock was almost certainly destroyed.