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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873-1890 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Horizontal format note with an elaborate engraved border. The royal coat of arms vignette is centred at the top, flanked by ornamental rosettes and the numeral 5 in each upper corner. The heading reads HONG KONG BRANCH across the top, with INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER in a curved legend beneath the arms. The body of the note carries a promise-to-pay text in letterpress, with the large word FIVE DOLLARS rendered in a bold blue guilloche underprint across the centre field. Chinese script panels appear on both vertical margins, and the word SPECIMEN is overprinted in red. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | HONG KONG BRANCH INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER HONG KONG THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand FIVE DOLLARS FIVE SPECIMEN Ent'd ACCOUNT MANAGER |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the major British overseas exchange banks operating under a royal charter, competing directly with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in the treaty ports. This five dollar note would have circulated primarily in the Straits Settlements or Hong Kong, where the Mexican silver dollar — not sterling — set the practical unit of account for trade.
The bank was absorbed into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1893, which sets a hard terminus for any note still carrying this issuer name. Examples from the later years of the 1873–1890 window are scarcer; the merger triggered a recall and most surviving notes were cancelled or destroyed through routine redemption.