Catalog
400 Baht / 400 Ticals HSBC
| Issuer | The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Barclay & Fry, London, United Kingdom (1855-1922) |
| 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 | Salmon-red intaglio printing over a pale green guilloche underprint, with the central vignette occupied by the royal arms of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, surmounted by the bilingual English and Thai bank title and the Bangkok office designation below. Serial number boxes are positioned at upper left and right flanking the vignette, the denomination 400 repeated in each corner, and the promise-to-pay legend in English distributed across two ornamental ribbon panels at centre, with the word BANGKOK set in a decorative cartouche at the foot. Chinese characters reading 香港上海滙豐銀行 run along the upper border, while Thai and Chinese denomination inscriptions occupy the side margins; the printer's imprint reads "Engraved on Steel by Barclay & Fry, London." |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行 銀 豐 滙 海 上 港 香 暹銀四佰銖 暹銀四佰銖 400 400 เปนเงินสยาม สี่ร้อย เปนเงินสยาม สี่ร้อย ฮองกงและเชียงไฮ้แบงกิงกอปอเรชัน № № THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION, BANGKOK, 18 Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand FOUR HUNDRED TICALS Local Currency at its Office here value received BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Acc.ᵗ Manager กรุงเทพฯ กรุงเทพฯ BANGKOK. 400 400 Engraved on Steel by Barclay & Fry, London |
| 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 Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation operated in Bangkok under a royal concession that permitted foreign banks to issue notes denominated in the local tical — an arrangement that would have been unthinkable within a decade, as Siamese financial nationalism gathered force in the 1890s. The 400-tical denomination is unusually high and suggests this note was designed for wholesale trade settlement rather than retail commerce, almost certainly tied to the rice export business that dominated Bangkok's international economy at the time.
Barclay & Fry printed for several colonial and foreign banking clients during this period, working primarily in intaglio. Only a handful of HSBC Bangkok issues from this era are known to survive.