200 Dollars Mauritius Commercial Bank

The Mauritius Commercial Bank, founded in 1838, was the island's first private commercial bank and began issuing its own notes almost immediately. This 1839 note predates the establishment of any central banking authority on the island — the MCB operated with considerable autonomy in those early years, filling a vacuum left by the departure of earlier colonial monetary arrangements.

Private bank issues from Mauritius at this period are exceptionally rare survivors. The tropical climate was hard on paper, and most notes from the MCB's earliest series were either redeemed and destroyed or simply deteriorated in circulation.