Catalog
5 Shillings
| Issuer | Mercantile Bank of India, London & China, Colombo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The note is headed 'CEYLON BRANCH' in serif capitals at the top centre, with denomination panels reading '5 SHILLINGS' in the upper left and right corners. A central vignette presents a seated classical female figure — evoking Britannia — flanked by a lion and a palm tree, combining imperial and tropical imagery in an engraved style consistent with mid-nineteenth-century colonial banknote production. Below, the full bank title 'THE MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA' appears above a copperplate promise-to-pay text, with manuscript serial number fields and signature lines for the Accountant and Manager at the foot. |
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| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH 5 SHILLINGS THE MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on demand at its Branch in COLOMBO, in the Currency of the Island FIVE SHILLINGS, Value rec'd By order of the Directors ACCT. MANAGER. |
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| Comments |
The Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was incorporated under Royal Charter in 1853, growing out of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India — one of the exchange banks that financed the colonial trade networks linking Britain, India, and the China coast. The Colombo branch was a relatively minor outpost in that network, and the decision to issue low-denomination notes in shillings rather than rupees reflects the hybrid monetary environment of mid-19th century Ceylon, where both sterling and Company-era coinage circulated simultaneously.
Surviving examples from this 1857 issue are exceptionally rare. The bank itself was absorbed into the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1959, but its earliest colonial branch issues had effectively vanished from circulation long before.