50 Rupees Oriental Bank Corporation

The Oriental Bank Corporation was chartered in London in 1851 and became one of the most expansive colonial banks of the nineteenth century, with branches stretching from Mauritius to Hong Kong. Its Indian operations were substantial enough to warrant private note issue — a privilege extended to a handful of exchange banks operating under colonial financial arrangements before the Presidency Banks consolidated that authority.

Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the obvious choice for security printing of this kind; their intaglio work for colonial currency and postage stamps was already established across the empire. The watermark was the primary anti-counterfeiting measure on notes of this type, as serial numbering and overprinting remained relatively rudimentary in mid-Victorian private bank issues.

The bank collapsed in 1884, caught badly exposed by a series of bad loans in Ceylon's coffee-growing sector after blight destroyed the crop.