100 Rupees Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China

The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was established by royal charter in 1853, primarily to finance the Indo-Chinese opium and cotton trades. By 1870, its network ran from Bombay to Shanghai, and notes like this one circulated across multiple British colonial ports simultaneously — legally payable in rupees but practically useful wherever the bank maintained an agency.

Perkins, Bacon & Co. held long-standing relationships with colonial banking institutions throughout this period, their steel-engraved intaglio work being considered sufficiently difficult to counterfeit for circulation in markets with limited access to anti-forgery expertise. The Chartered Mercantile Bank was absorbed into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1892, ending the issuing authority entirely.