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5 Rupees
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation, Badulla |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851-1880 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER FIVE RUPEES FIVE RUPEES BADULLA, CEYLON THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Branch here or at their Bank in Colombo FIVE RUPEES or the equivalent in the Currency of this Island. Value received. By order of the Court of Directors. Acct. Agent |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Perkins Bacon & Petch London |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation was a British overseas bank chartered in 1851, operating across India, Ceylon, and the Far East before its spectacular collapse in 1884 — one of the more consequential bank failures in Victorian financial history. Badulla, a hill-country town in Ceylon's Uva Province, was a plantation district center, meaning this note circulated primarily among coffee estate owners, merchants, and colonial administrators rather than any broad retail public.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were prolific security printers whose intaglio work supplied banknotes and stamps across the British Empire. The same firm printed Ceylon's first postage stamps in the early 1850s, making the overlap in timing with this note series more than coincidental.