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5 Rupees Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1883-1884 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Red and blue intaglio print with elaborate guilloche work; two facing female portrait vignettes at left and right, with a central ornamental panel incorporating the denomination numeral and multiscript legends in Sinhala and Tamil. Numeral 5 repeated in guilloche roundels at all four corners. A perforated SPECIMEN / BW&Co / LONDON overprint appears at lower centre. |
| Reverse lettering | 5 FIVE රුපියල් පහයි ஐந்து ரூபாய் SPECIMEN BW&Co LONDON (Translation: Five rupees.) |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation collapsed in May 1884 — one of the most spectacular banking failures in Victorian colonial finance — which makes notes from this 1883–84 series genuinely terminal issues. The bank had overextended itself through bad agricultural loans in Ceylon and Mauritius, and when the crash came, redemption was chaotic. Notes presented late or in distant branches were frequently dishonored.
Bradbury Wilkinson had printed for the OBC across multiple colonial territories, and the same plate architecture appears across the bank's Mauritius, Ceylon, and Indian issues from this period. Distinguishing them requires careful attention to the place-of-payment text, not the engraving style.