Catalog
1000 Dollars
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1845-1939) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black letterpress. The British Royal coat of arms, supported by a lion and unicorn, is centred at the top. Text is arranged in formal typeset blocks below, with manuscript accountant and manager endorsements at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | $1000 INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER SINGAPORE THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Office here ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS Local currency for Value Received. By order of the Court of Directors Entd. Accountt. Manager. |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation, chartered in London in 1842, was one of the great imperial banks of the nineteenth century — operating across India, Ceylon, China, and the Pacific. A $1000 note issued in 1851 places this firmly in the bank's early expansion into Asian trade finance, when its offices were handling opium and cotton exchange on a massive scale. Denominations of this size were not retail instruments; they moved between merchants and trading houses.
The bank collapsed in 1884, leaving extensive losses across its branch network. Survivors at this denomination are extraordinarily rare.