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1 Pound
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation, Colombo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1846-1850 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Pound |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH. THE ORIENTAL BANK. Promises to pay the Bearer on demand at the Office of its Branch here in the Currency of the Island, ONE POUND. Value received. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. BATHO & BINGLEY, 76, Lombard Street, London. SPECIMEN. 1 POUND COLOMBO, No. Ent. Acc. MANAGER. |
| Reverse description | No reverse image available; the reverse of this specimen trial note is not documented in the available reference. |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation began as the Bank of Western India in 1842, rechartered and renamed in 1845 as it expanded aggressively across British colonial trade routes — Ceylon, India, Mauritius, China. This Colombo-payable pound note falls in the earliest years of that rebranded operation, when the bank was still establishing correspondent relationships and branch authority across the Indian Ocean network.
Batho & Bingley were a minor London security printer of the period, nowhere near as dominant as Perkins Bacon or De La Rue. Their work on colonial bank notes is uncommon enough that attribution is sometimes disputed when margins are trimmed.