Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Rupees Kandy; Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Yes |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on pink underprint; allegorical enthroned female figure with lions at left, bust of Mercury holding caduceus at right, and British coat of arms at upper centre. Bilingual value inscriptions in Sinhala and Tamil appear below the central text block. Printer's imprint at lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5 KANDY THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER රුපියල් පහයි ஐந்து ரூபாய் Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Office here FIVE RUPEES value received. KANDY 1st January 1881. By Order of the Court of Directors ENTD. ACCOUNTT. MANAGER. CEYLON BRADBURY WILLKINSON & CO ENGRAVERS LONDON (Translation: Five rupees.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation, chartered in London with headquarters in Bombay, issued notes across a sprawling network that stretched from Ceylon to Hong Kong to Mauritius. The Kandy branch notes represent the bank's upcountry operations in Ceylon — Kandy had been the center of the last independent Kandyan kingdom and remained commercially significant long after British annexation in 1815, particularly in relation to the coffee and, later, tea trade.
The bank collapsed in 1884, just three years after this note's issue date, following a series of catastrophic losses tied to the collapse of Ceylon's coffee industry after a devastating outbreak of coffee leaf rust. Notes from the final years of issue are genuinely uncommon survivors.