Catalog
20 Dollars Mauritius Commercial Bank
| Issuer | Mauritius Commercial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1839 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | TWENTY MAURITIUS COMMERCIAL BANK TWENTY PROMISE TO PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND THE SUM OF TWENTY DOLLARS FOUR POUNDS STERLING COLONIAL CURRENCY VALUE RECEIVED FOR THE MAURITIUS COMMERCIAL BANKING COMPANY |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted reverse showing only the faint bleed-through impression of the obverse vignette and text through the thin paper stock, with no intentional design elements. |
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| Comments |
The Mauritius Commercial Bank was founded in 1838 — the first commercial bank established in Mauritius — and this note dates from just its second year of operation. Private banknotes of this period from Indian Ocean colonial territories are genuinely rare; most circulated hard and were redeemed or destroyed as British imperial banking institutions gradually consolidated note-issuing authority on the island through the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Surviving 1839 MCB notes are among the earliest private paper money from sub-Saharan African colonial issuers in any major reference collection.