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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1894 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Green intaglio print on paper with red guilloche underprint and black serial numbers. The bank's coat of arms vignette is centred between the serial numbers, with the issue place and date handwritten below. Bilingual legends in English and Chinese appear at top and bottom, with two manuscript signatures at foot over printed role titles. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5 THE HONGKONG & SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION SINGAPORE 1st Jan 1894 Promises to pay the Bearer on demand FIVE DOLLARS at its office here Local Currency for Value received. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Engraved on Steel by Metchim & Son, London. |
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| Comments |
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was printing its own notes long before any colonial authority formally regulated the practice — HSBC's right of issue in Hong Kong derived from its founding ordinance of 1866, making it one of the few private banks in the region with a legally entrenched note-issuing privilege. By 1894, the bank's circulation spanned branches across Asia, and a single note might physically pass through Shanghai, Yokohama, or Singapore before redemption.
Metchim & Son were a relatively minor London printing house, not one of the dominant security printers of the period — their appearance here rather than Perkins Bacon or De La Rue is worth noting, though the reason for the contract is not documented in the public record.