Catalog
500 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown on cream paper with Chinese characters running along the top margin. The central vignette presents the bank's royal coat of arms flanked by the denomination "$500." in the upper corners. The text body, in copperplate script, reads "THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA" above a promise-to-pay clause for Five Hundred Dollars, with "HONGKONG" inscribed at both the top left and the lower portion of the note, and signature lines for the Entd., Acct., and Manager positions at the foot. |
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| Obverse lettering | 印發絡企行銀理匯國中山孫 HONGKONG THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its Office here Five Hundred Dollars or the equivalent in the Currency of the Island Value received By Order of the Court of Directors $500. Five Hundred Dollars Entd. Acct. MANAGER |
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The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was one of the great Eastern exchange banks of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, operating under a royal charter granted in 1853. A $500 note was never a retail instrument — denominations at this level moved between merchants, compradors, and trading houses, particularly in Hong Kong and the treaty ports of China where the bank maintained active branches.
Pick 26 is among the rarest surviving issues of this series. High-denomination notes of this type were typically cancelled or destroyed once transactions cleared, leaving almost no examples in private hands today.