Catalog
50 Pounds
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London & China, Colombo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1864-1869 |
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| Value | 50 Pounds |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black and blue on white cotton paper, with the heading CEYLON BRANCH. at the top, flanked by two oval guilloche vignettes each enclosing the numeral 50. The royal coat of arms of the bank appears centrally at the top, below the legend INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER. The promise-to-pay text reads THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA, with COLOMBO as place of issue and a large blue intaglio FIFTY POUNDS underprint across the centre. Inscriptions in Sinhalese and Tamil script appear along the top and bottom borders, and the word SPECIMEN is overprinted in red at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 50 50 |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the exchange banks operating under Royal Charter, competing directly with the Oriental Bank and the Agra & Masterman's Bank for trade finance across the Indo-Pacific corridor. Its Colombo branch served the Ceylon export economy — primarily coffee at this point, before the 1869 leaf rust devastation that would later collapse the plantation industry and force a shift to tea.
A 50 Pound denomination at this branch speaks to wholesale mercantile use rather than retail circulation. Ordinary wage earners never handled notes at this level; these moved between merchants, agency houses, and estate owners settling large consignments.
The bank was absorbed into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1892 following decades of consolidation among the Eastern exchange banks.