Catalog
5 Pounds
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London & China, Colombo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1864-1869 |
| Type | Pattern or trial banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH. FIVE FIVE INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER KANDY THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at do... the sum of... currency of the Island of Ceylon, value received. By order of the Court of Directors Ent'd ACCOUNT MANAGER FIVE POUNDS SPECIMEN |
| Reverse description | Plain green back with a large central oval guilloche panel enclosing the numeral 5, flanked on each side by smaller circular guilloche rosettes also bearing the numeral 5, all executed in fine lathe-work engraving. The overall design is uncluttered, relying entirely on the intricate engine-turned geometric patterns for visual effect. Faint mirror-image text from the obverse is visible through the paper along the top edge. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was incorporated under Royal Charter in 1853 and operated across a network of Asian branches dependent on London's capital backing. The Colombo branch served Ceylon's growing export trade — primarily coffee at this point, before the leaf blight of the 1870s devastated the plantations and fundamentally altered the colony's commercial character. A five-pound denomination would have moved between merchants and agency houses, not retailers.
The bank was absorbed into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1892. Surviving branch notes from any of its Ceylon operations are genuinely rare; most were redeemed or destroyed well before the merger.