5 Rupees Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China

The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China — incorporated in London in 1853 under a Royal Charter — was one of the handful of British exchange banks operating across the Indian Ocean trade routes before the era of nationalized currency control. It was absorbed by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1892, which gives any surviving note from the 1870s decade a hard terminal date relative to the issuing institution.

Perkins, Bacon & Co. printed for colonial banking clients and governments alike, using steel intaglio techniques developed partly from their extensive banknote and stamp work. Their plates wore well, making print-run dating without archival records genuinely difficult.