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5 Dollars The Chartered Bank
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934-1956 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 165 × 95 mm |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed vignette at left of a helmeted centurion in three-quarter portrait against a pink and green guilloche underprint. The bank's Royal Arms crest is engraved at top centre, flanked by Chinese characters and the bilingual place name HONGKONG at upper left and right. The central text panel carries the promise-to-pay clause, denomination FIVE DOLLARS in bold letterpress, and the place and date of issue below, with two manuscript signatures over the printed titles ACCOUNTANT and MANAGER. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central intaglio vignette of a Chinese junk under full sail on calm harbour waters, with a smaller vessel in the foreground and a tree-lined shore to the left, all rendered in green on a green guilloche ground. The denomination FIVE DOLLARS appears in a curved banner at top centre, with the large Chinese numeral 伍 above the main vignette. Four corner medallions carry symbolic vignettes, and the bank title is set in a cartouche at the bottom centre. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China held a colonial banking charter that gave it the right to issue notes across a vast, jurisdictionally awkward network of branches — Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, and beyond. The specific branch of payment matters enormously with this series, as identical-looking Waterlow-printed notes were overprinted or signed for different offices, and values can diverge sharply depending on which branch name appears.
Waterlow & Sons produced this series across more than two decades, which is a long print run by any measure. Wartime disruption to distribution almost certainly explains part of that span — notes prepared before or during the Japanese occupation of regional branches had complicated paths to actual issuance.