Catalog
50 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Green-tinted note with a central royal coat of arms vignette surrounded by an ornate guilloche border. The denomination '$50' appears in the upper left and upper right corners, with the issuer's name 'THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA' printed in bold letterpress across the center. A promise-to-pay text in cursive script reads 'Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand... FIFTY DOLLARS or the equivalent in the currency of the Island, Value received,' followed by signature lines for Accountant and Manager, with Chinese characters along the left and right margins and 'HONGKONG' at the lower center. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 印度廣金中山國匯理銀行 HONGKONG THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER $50 FIFTY DOLLARS Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its office here FIFTY DOLLARS or the equivalent in the currency of the Island, Value received. BY ORDER OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. Emt. Acct. MANAGER HONGKONG 香港 百元伍拾 |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1853 and operated as one of the principal British exchange banks across Asia, maintaining branches from Shanghai to Singapore and Colombo. Its colonial-era currency issues circulated in a patchwork of territories where no single local authority was empowered to produce notes — the bank filled that vacuum by right of its charter.
The $50 denomination was always a merchant and trading house instrument, not retail currency. High-value Chartered Bank notes rarely wore out in ordinary commerce; most moved between counting houses and were retired quickly, which paradoxically makes circulated survivors rarer than uncirculated ones held in bank vaults.
Pick S124 falls within the pre-nationalization series, before the bank's 1969 merger with Standard Bank to form Standard Chartered.