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500 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1910-1911 |
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| Currency | Straits dollar (1904-1939) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in red and green tones on cream paper, with a large green guilloche numeral '500' occupying the central field. At the top, the bank's title 'THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA' is set in bold letterpress, flanked by the denomination '$500' repeated on each side, with the Royal Charter vignette — depicting the Royal Arms — centered above the issuer's name. Chinese characters appear along the left and right margins as well as along the top and bottom borders, while the date, serial number, branch designation 'HONG KONG,' and the manuscript text of the promise clause are printed across the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA $500 HONG KONG INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER BY ORDER of the COURT of DIRECTORS Manager 印設紋金中山國中匯理行銀 伍佰圓 |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was one of the handful of note-issuing foreign banks operating in Hong Kong under the colonial system that permitted such privileges — a legacy of the 1845 royal charter that predates the colony's own monetary authority by decades. The $500 denomination was never a public circulation note in any practical sense; it functioned almost entirely for interbank settlement and large mercantile transfers, the kind of transactions dominating Hong Kong's entrepôt trade with the Chinese interior.
Survival rate is extremely low. High-denomination notes of this type were typically cancelled and destroyed once their settlement purpose was complete, meaning genuinely uncancelled examples are exceptional finds. Pick #40 listings rarely appear at auction.