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20 Pounds Anglo-Egyptian Banking Company Limited
| Issuer | Anglo-Egyptian Banking Company Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1886 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black and blue, with the issuer's title in bold Gothic script across the upper portion and a denomination cartouche reading "TWENTY" at the upper right. At the left, an intaglio oval vignette contains a half-length portrait of a bearded gentleman in period armour, set within an ornate frame of scrollwork and a circular shield below. A large blue guilloche underprint of the word "TWENTY" fills the centre, overlaid with the manuscript promise-to-pay text, place of issue "Malta", and date "1st Oct. 1886", with a lower cartouche reading "£ TWENTY" and the printer's imprint "Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Engravers &c. London" at the lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in blue and composed of an elaborate all-over guilloche pattern of interlocking floral and geometric lathe-work, with a scalloped outer border. At the centre, an octagonal panel encloses the numeral "20" in bold script, beneath which the printer's imprint reads "BRADBURY WILKINSON & Co LONDON". Below the central design, a perfin cancellation spells out "SPECIMEN / B.W.&CO / LONDON", identifying this as a printer's specimen example. |
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| Comments |
The Anglo-Egyptian Banking Company was incorporated in London in 1864 to service trade finance between Britain and Egypt, operating at a moment when Egyptian public debt was spiraling toward the 1876 default that would eventually bring British occupation. This note was issued a decade after that crisis, during the period of British administrative control that followed Arabi Pasha's defeat at Tel el-Kebir in 1882. The bank operated branches in Alexandria and Cairo but remained a British-chartered institution throughout.
Bradbury Wilkinson produced high-security commercial bank notes for numerous colonial and trade-oriented institutions during this period, and their work for the Anglo-Egyptian series is consistent with that output. The £20 denomination would have been a wholesale instrument — not a note passing through ordinary retail commerce in the bazaars of Cairo.