Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
20 Sicca Rupees Calcutta Bank
| Issuer | Calcutta Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1824-1829 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Sicca Rupees |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The obverse bears the issuer name 'Calcutta' at upper left, with the promise text panel flanked on either side by manuscript serial number panels. Above the promise text panel at right appears a manuscript date alongside the printed year '18xx'. The denomination is rendered in words and numerals in Bangla and Kaithi scripts, and in words only in Persian, above a central vignette, with a denomination panel at lower left; the note is completed by a manuscript authorising signature and the printed legend 'For the Calcutta Bank'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Calcutta Bank |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Calcutta Bank was chartered in 1824 and collapsed just five years later, making its note issues among the shortest-lived of any Indian presidency bank. This 20 Sicca Rupee note falls within that entire window of operation — there was no "early" or "late" period to speak of.
The sicca rupee was a Bengal-specific denomination, heavier than the surat rupee and officially valued at a slight premium. Its use on private bank paper in the 1820s was already becoming anachronistic; the East India Company was actively working toward a unified coinage standard that would render the sicca obsolete by 1836.
Surviving examples from any Calcutta Bank issue are genuinely rare — the bank's failure triggered a financial panic in Bengal, and redemption pressure would have pulled most notes out of circulation quickly.