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5 Shillings Mercantile Bank of India, London & China
| Issuer | Mercantile Bank of India, London & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857 |
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| Currency | Pound (1828-1869) |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on blue underprint with black vertical overprint. Central vignette of a seated, front-facing Britannia holding spear and shield, with a lion at left and crown and anchor at right; sailing ships and a tree in the background. Bilingual inscription in Sinhala and Tamil below the denomination. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH 5 SHILLINGS සිලින් පහයි ஐந்து ஷீலீன் COLOMBO 18__ THE MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA, Promises to pay the Bearer in demand at Its branch in COLOMBO, in the Currency of the Islands FIVE SHILLINGS, Value rec. ISSUED AT KANDY. By order of the Directors Entd. Acct. MANAGER (Translation: Five shillings.) |
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| Comments |
The Mercantile Bank of India, London & China was chartered in 1853 as a direct competitor to the established Presidency banks, targeting the booming trade finance business along the London–Bombay–Hong Kong corridor. An 1857 date puts this note at an extraordinarily turbulent moment: the Indian Rebellion broke out that May, disrupting commerce across the subcontinent and placing enormous strain on every private bank operating in the region. Several contemporaries failed outright within the following two years.
Batho & Bingley were a relatively minor London trade printer — not a specialist security printer in the Perkins Bacon mould — which may account for why surviving examples show varying ink density across the face.