Catalog
25 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1883 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1845-1939) |
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| Obverse description | Red and blue letterpress print on pale stock, with a multilingual border incorporating Chinese, Arabic, and Tamil scripts. The Royal Arms vignette occupies upper centre beneath the arc inscription "INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER", flanked by oval guilloche panels bearing the numeral 25. A large green underprint of "TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS" overlays the central promise-to-pay text. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in red solely, the reverse centres on an elaborate guilloche rosette medallion flanked by symmetrical foliate scrollwork and two circular guilloche lozenges each bearing the numeral 25. The printer's imprint "Perkins Bacon & Co London" appears in small type beneath the central medallion. A large watermark-style overprint of the bank name runs diagonally across the entire field. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the major exchange banks operating under Royal Charter in the Eastern trade, competing directly with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Oriental Bank Corporation — the latter's collapse in 1884 would ultimately reshape the entire field. Perkins, Bacon & Co. had long supplied security printing to colonial banking operations, their work characterized by intricately engraved lathe-work borders that were technically difficult to counterfeit in the treaty port environment where these notes circulated.
Hong Kong dollar-denominated notes from this bank in 1883 are genuinely rare survivors. The bank itself was absorbed into the Mercantile Bank of India in 1893.