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100 Rupees Galle; Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1867 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Perkins, Bacon & Co., London, United Kingdom |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper with a scalloped guilloche border. The British Royal Arms vignette is engraved at top centre, flanked by denomination numerals "100" in ornate cartouches; Sinhala and Tamil denomination inscriptions appear at upper left and right respectively. The body carries a letterpress promise-to-pay text within a lightly shaded underprint panel, dated "GALLE, CEYLON 15th Feby 1867." |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | රුපියල්සියයයි நூறுரூபாய் 100 INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER GALLE, CEYLON 15th Feby 1867. THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Branch here, or at their Bank in Colombo ONE HUNDRED RUPEES or the equivalent in the Currency of this Island. Value received. By order of the Court of Directors, Entd. Accountt. Agent. Perkins, Bacon & Co, London. Patent Hardened Steel Plate. (Translation: One hundred rupees.) |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation was a British overseas bank chartered in 1851, operating across India, Ceylon, China, and Australia at its peak. The Galle branch note dates from a period when OBC was still a dominant force in Ceylon's colonial financial system — within two decades the bank would collapse spectacularly in 1884, wiped out by bad agricultural loans and a collapse in coffee prices following the island's devastating leaf blight. Notes from any OBC branch are scarce precisely because the failure was sudden and the remaining currency was largely called in or destroyed.
Perkins, Bacon engraved and printed extensively for colonial banking clients throughout this period, using steel intaglio techniques developed originally for security printing on postage stamps.