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5 Rupees Kandy; Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870-1873 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress and intaglio print on cream paper. The British Royal Arms vignette is engraved at top centre, encircled by the legend 'INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER', flanked by denomination panels in English, Sinhala, and Tamil script. A dense guilloche border frames the entire note, with the promise-to-pay text in copperplate script across the centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniface; the reverse is plain unprinted paper, with faint offset ghosting of the obverse visible through the sheet. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of several British exchange banks operating across Asia under Royal Charter, but its Ceylon branch notes occupy a particularly narrow window in institutional history — the bank was absorbed by the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1893, and branch-issued notes from the Kandy office predate even the bank's own mature period in the island. Perkins, Bacon & Co. held long-standing contracts for colonial currency work, their intaglio security printing being standard for British overseas banking instruments of this period.
Kandy's designation as the place of payment reflects the hill-country commercial trade centered there, distinct from the coastal Colombo network.