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50 Rupees Kandy; Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Rupee (1871-1972) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH රුපියල් පනහයි ஐம்பது ரூபாய் 50 RUPEES INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER KANDY, 1st July 1870 THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on demand here or at Colombo, FIFTY RUPEES, Value received. By order of the Court of Directors, Entd. ACCOUNTT. MANAGER PERKINS, BACON & Co, LONDON. (Translation: Fifty rupees.) |
| Reverse description | Blank, unprinted. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the Exchange Banks operating across British Asia under Royal Charter — distinct from the later Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, with which it is routinely confused. This Kandy branch issue dates from a period when the upcountry Ceylon trade, particularly in coffee, was generating enough commercial volume to justify a local point of payment designation on notes printed in London by Perkins, Bacon.
The coffee boom collapsed catastrophically in the 1870s and 1880s due to *Hemileia vastatrix* — the fungal blight that wiped out virtually the entire Ceylon crop. The bank itself was absorbed into the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China in 1892, making branch-specific survivor notes from this period genuinely uncommon.