Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Rupees Galle; Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper with an elaborate guilloche border. The British Royal Arms vignette appears at top centre, flanked by large numeral "50" denominators and Sinhala and Tamil script legends. The promise-to-pay text, date, and issuer name are set in letterpress below, with roles for Entd., Accountant, and Agent at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | රුපියල්පනහයි ஐம்பதுரூபாய் 50 INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER GALLE, CEYLON 15th June 1866. THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Branch here, or at their Bank in Colombo FIFTY RUPEES, or the equivalent in the Currency of this Island Value received. By order of the Court of Directors, Entd. Accountt. Agent. Perkins, Bacon & Co, London. Patent Hardened Steel Plate. (Translation: Fifty rupees.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation, chartered in London in 1851, was one of the dominant British exchange banks operating across Asia and the Indian Ocean rim. Its Galle branch notes were issued from Ceylon's principal port city at a time when Galle still functioned as the island's main commercial harbor before Colombo's rise displaced it. The bank collapsed spectacularly in 1884, a casualty of bad loans, the collapse of colonial commodity prices, and mismanagement — one of the more dramatic bank failures in Victorian imperial finance.
Perkins, Bacon's engraved plates for this series were among the more security-conscious note productions of the period, drawing on the firm's long experience with anti-counterfeiting work, including British postage stamps.