20 Sicca Rupees Calcutta Bank

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.