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5 Rupees Galle; Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1880-1883 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Brown intaglio print on green underprint. The Royal British arms vignette is centred at top, flanked by Sinhala and Tamil denomination inscriptions; dual serial numbers appear below the arms alongside the date and place of issue. A large green guilloche underprint bearing 'FIVE' occupies the lower centre, with the promise-to-pay text and signature lines below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Brown letterpress print. Four ornamental ovals are placed in each corner of the note, with the denomination value displayed at centre. The printer's imprint appears along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was absorbed into the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1892, making its surviving branch-issued notes genuinely terminal — nothing further was issued under this name after the takeover. The Galle branch on Ceylon's southern coast was a modest but strategically placed office serving the maritime trade routes; notes issued there circulated in a tight regional economy and rarely traveled far.
Perkins, Bacon's steel-engraved work for colonial banking clients of this period is reliably tight, and the Galle payable notes are among the rarer branch designations from this issuer.