50 Rupees

The Oriental Bank Corporation was a London-chartered bank operating across British colonial Asia, and its Ceylon branch notes — issued from Galle, then still the island's principal commercial port — represent one of the more short-lived colonial series in South Asian numismatics. The parent bank collapsed spectacularly in May 1884, caught by bad loans in Mauritius and a run on deposits across multiple branches simultaneously. Notes outstanding at that date became immediately worthless in commercial terms, though the Crown eventually managed a partial settlement for creditors.

Perkins Bacon's intaglio work on this series is technically accomplished, as expected from a firm that had been producing security printing since the 1820s. The 1884 failure cut the series short — four years of issue at most, likely fewer for the higher denominations.