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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1858 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The note is divided into a landscape format with a central allegorical vignette at the top showing Britannia seated with a lion and palm tree, flanked by the word FIVE in ornate panels at upper left and right. A large blue guilloche underprint of the numeral FIVE dominates the lower half of the note face. The text body, rendered in a combination of letterpress and script, reads the promise to pay the Bearer on demand Five Dollars or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island, signed by order of the Directors, with manuscript spaces for date, number, and signatures for the Accountant and Manager. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | HONG KONG BRANCH THE CHARTERED FIVE No. HONG KONG, 18 MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on demand at its Office here, FIVE DOLLARS or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island. Value rec'd. By order of the Directors. Ent. ACCT. MANAGER. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China received its Royal Charter in 1853, making it one of the earliest exchange banks purpose-built for Anglo-Indian and Far Eastern trade finance rather than adapted from a domestic British model. By 1858 the bank was operating branches in Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, and colonial five-dollar notes like this one functioned primarily as instruments of trade settlement rather than everyday pocket money — moving between merchants, agency houses, and comprador networks.
The bank was later absorbed into the Mercantile Bank of India in 1893. Surviving 1858-dated examples are genuinely rare; most were redeemed, cancelled, or simply consumed by the humidity of the ports they circulated in.