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25 Dollars - The Central Bank of Western India Yokohama
| Issuer | Central Bank of Western India |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1858-date) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 濱 番九拾五今番四拾英先 横 № 54 YOKUHAMA 25 DOLLARS 英 Japan 英 進 The Central Bank of Western India 商 川 PROMISES to pay the BEARER 進 老 on Demand at its Office here 川 西 TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS 老 替 of Local Currency. Value received. 銀 所 9th February 1866 № 54 行 Batho, Sprague & Co. London $ 25 $ BY ORDER OF THE DIRECTORS. Ent. ACCT. 横 右現◯銀◯拾五牧 元五拾◯洋◯支不西 濱 |
| Reverse description | The entire reverse is occupied by a large central guilloche medallion of fine lathe-work, within which the numeral "25" appears in bold relief at centre, flanked on each side by a circular guilloche lozenge bearing a dollar sign. The legend "CENTRAL BANK OF" arches across the top of the central medallion and "WESTERN INDIA." curves along the bottom, the whole composition enclosed within an ornate engine-turned border. The printer's imprint of Batho, Sprague & Co. London appears in small text at the foot of the design. |
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| Comments |
The Central Bank of Western India was a short-lived Bombay-based institution that collapsed in the banking crisis of 1866 — the same chain of failures that wiped out the Back Bay Reclamation speculation and triggered the implosion of the Bank of Bombay. This branch note, payable at Yokohama, reflects the bank's ambitions across the treaty ports of Asia, where expatriate commercial banking was still largely improvised.
Batho, Sprague & Co. handled a significant volume of colonial and overseas bank printing in the 1860s before being absorbed into the trade. The Yokohama payability makes surviving examples unusually rare — the branch had virtually no time to operate before the parent institution failed the same year the note was issued.