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25 Dollars
| Issuer | Mercantile Bank of India, Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | A central oval vignette of a harbour scene with sailing vessels and a church spire occupies the middle of the note, framed by an elaborate guilloche border in dark blue-green. The bank title 'MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA LIMITED' is set in bold letterpress to the right of the vignette, with the numeral '25' repeated in each corner, while Chinese characters reading '香港有利銀行' are printed vertically in panels along each lateral margin. The place and date of issue 'HONG KONG, 1st March, 1912' appear in the lower text panel alongside the promise-to-pay clause. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA LIMITED Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its Office here TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island. HONG KONG, 1st March, 1912 香港有利銀行 25 |
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| Comments |
The Mercantile Bank of India, Limited was a British-chartered bank operating under a Hong Kong ordinance, with note-issuing rights that extended across its branch network. The 1912 series reflects the bank's active presence in the colony's commercial trade finance sector at a time when several competing banks — Chartered, HSBC, and others — were all issuing their own notes alongside the government.
The Mercantile Bank was eventually acquired by HSBC in 1959, and its private note-issuing history effectively ended well before that. Early twentieth-century issues from this bank in higher denominations survive in genuinely small numbers.