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50 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is set on an intricate guilloche underprint in red and green tones, with the full bank title — THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA — in bold letterpress across the upper portion, flanked by Chinese characters reading 中國澳洲印度渣打銀行 and 香港 on both lateral margins. A central vignette rendered in intaglio presents a pastoral riverside scene with figures, cattle, and trees. The denomination FIFTY DOLLARS appears in an oval cartouche above the vignette, with the date 1st January, 1912 and place of issue HONGKONG inscribed below, alongside manuscript signatures for the Accountant and Manager by Order of the Court of Directors. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA FIFTY DOLLARS OR THE EQUIVALENT IN THE CURRENCY OF THE COLONY HONGKONG 1ST JANUARY, 1912 BY ORDER OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS VALEUR IDENTIQUE 中國澳洲印度渣打銀行 印度廈金山 香港 伍拾圓 五十伍拾 |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was one of the great British overseas banks operating under Royal Charter, competing directly with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation across treaty ports and colonial outposts throughout Asia. By 1912, its network stretched from Calcutta to Shanghai, and high-denomination notes like this fifty-dollar piece circulated primarily in trade and commercial settlement — not among ordinary depositors.
Pick 43 is a genuinely scarce type. The Chartered Bank's pre-war Asian dollar issues have always suffered attrition from the climate, from wartime disruptions, and from the bank's own periodic note recalls. Survivors in any grade are thinly held.