Catalog
8 Sicca Rupees Commercial Bank, Calcutta
| Issuer | Commercial Bank, Calcutta |
|---|---|
| Year | 1819-1831 |
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| Value | 8 Sicca Rupees |
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| Obverse description | A vertical border strap at left, printed in brown, carries the bank name in both English and Bengali script. Three engraved classical vignettes are arranged across the upper portion of the note: a portrait of Mercury at upper centre-left, a Britannia vignette at upper centre, and a personification of Ganga at upper right. The body of the note bears the promise-to-pay text, denomination, and issue details rendered in English and Bengali. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is divided into two oval panels: the left panel carries the denomination in Bengali numerals and the right panel in Persian script. A central band between the panels bears the bank name in Persian followed by the denomination expressed in words successively in Persian, Kaithi, and Bengali scripts. |
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| Comments |
The Commercial Bank of Calcutta was established in 1819 as one of the early joint-stock banking experiments in British India, operating outside the monopoly privileges held by the Bank of Bengal. Notes of this type were payable in Sicca Rupees — the Bengal standard coin, calculated at a slightly heavier weight than the Madras or Bombay rupee — a distinction that mattered enormously in mercantile settlements where exchange calculations between regional standards were a daily friction.
The bank collapsed in the early 1830s during the wave of failures that swept Calcutta's agency houses, and surviving notes are exceptionally rare. Most were either redeemed before closure or lost in the subsequent scramble among creditors.