Catalog
100 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse lettering | 100 DOLLARS SINGAPORE 18__ No THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand, at its Branch in SINGAPORE, in Local Currency, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS, Value received. BY ORDER OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. |
| Reverse description | Reverse is unprinted, presenting a plain cream paper surface with no design, text, or ornamental elements. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China received its royal charter in 1853 and was one of the so-called "exchange banks" operating out of the treaty ports — institutions whose real business was financing the Indo-Chinese trade in opium, cotton, and silk rather than serving any domestic retail market. A Hong Kong dollar note from 1861 would have circulated in an environment where Spanish-Mexican dollars and a patchwork of colonial scrip competed for daily use.
At the $100 denomination, this was a merchant instrument, not street currency. Few were printed, fewer still survived the bank's absorption into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China following the 1892 merger.