Catalog
5 Rupees Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Rupees |
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| Obverse description | Blue intaglio print on white paper with black serial numbers at left and right. The British Royal coat of arms is centrally positioned at upper centre, flanked by two oval vignettes each inscribed FIVE RUPEES in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. A fine guilloche border frames the entire note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | FIVE RUPEES INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER COLOMBO, CEYLON 15th March, 1866. THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promises to pay Bearer on demand at their Office here FIVE RUPEES or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island, Value received. By Order of the Court of Directors Entd _____ Accountt ______ Manager Perkins, Bacon & Petch, London. Patent Hardened Steel Plate |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation was chartered in Bombay in 1842 and became one of the most geographically overextended banks of the Victorian period — operating across India, Ceylon, Mauritius, Hong Kong, and Japan simultaneously. That ambition eventually broke it; the bank failed in 1884 after a series of bad agricultural loans tied to a collapse in Ceylonese coffee crops devastated by leaf rust disease.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the preeminent security printers of the mid-nineteenth century, responsible for the first adhesive postage stamps among dozens of other government contracts. Their intaglio work on private bank issues of this period is technically meticulous. The 1866 date places this note roughly eighteen years before the corporation's collapse and receiver proceedings.