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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1884 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Green-tinted note with a central vignette of the HSBC coat of arms flanked by two oval guilloche panels bearing the denomination numeral '5'. The issuer's name, THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION, is set in bold letterpress across the centre, above a promise-to-pay text in italic script reading 'Promises to pay the Bearer on demand at its Office here FIVE DOLLARS or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island, value received.' Chinese characters appear along the left and right borders as well as across the top, with 'HONG KONG' inscribed twice at lower centre. Serial number and handwritten date appear in the upper register. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 香港上海滙理銀行 THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION Promises to pay the Bearer on demand at its Office here FIVE DOLLARS or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island, value received. By Order of the Board of Directors. HONG KONG 伍員 |
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| Comments |
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation began issuing its own notes from the year of its founding in 1865, making it one of the earliest and most consequential private note-issuing banks in British Asia. By 1884 the bank was already the dominant financial institution in the colony and its notes functioned as the de facto circulating currency — Hong Kong had no government paper of its own until 1935.
P#137 is among the earlier surviving HSBC issues and genuinely scarce in any condition. Cotton paper was standard for the period but the colony's humid climate was punishing on circulating notes, and attrition was severe.