Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
25 Rupees Bank of Bengal, Calcutta
| Issuer | Bank of Bengal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A large intaglio-engraved allegorical vignette occupies the upper portion of the note, centred on Britannia enthroned and flanked by classical figures representing Commerce and the River Ganges, with palm trees, a sailing vessel, and architectural ruins in the background; the legend BANK OF BENGAL arcs in bold letterpress across the top of the vignette, with serial numbers set within cartouches at upper left and right. The central denomination panel reads TWENTY FIVE in large Gothic lettering over an intricate guilloche underprint, with the numeral 25 repeated at each lateral extremity. A decorative tablet at lower left carries a secondary TWENTY FIVE inscription, with the bank name repeated at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANK OF BENGAL 25 TWENTY FIVE 25 Twenty Five Bank of Bengal |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Bank of Bengal was one of the three Presidency Banks established under British colonial administration, and 1857 is about as charged a year as Indian monetary history gets. The Sepoy Mutiny — or the First War of Independence, depending on your framing — erupted that same year, severely disrupting commercial activity across northern India and placing enormous strain on the banking system. Notes of this period circulated under genuinely unstable conditions, not the relatively orderly commerce of earlier decades.
Printed in Calcutta rather than sent to London jobbers, which was unusual for the period and reflects the Presidency Banks' increasing operational self-sufficiency by the mid-nineteenth century. Survivors from this issue are exceptionally rare; most were retired through normal redemption channels, and the chaos of 1857 almost certainly accelerated the destruction of whatever reserves remained uncirculated.