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1 Pound Asiatic Banking Corporation
| Issuer | Asiatic Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1865-1866 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress text on brown guilloche underprint with ornate side panels bearing Sinhala and Tamil script. The bank's circular heraldic seal is at upper centre, flanked by two black denomination cartouches reading ONE POUND. Promise-to-pay text in italic script occupies the central panel, with dual serial numbers below the cartouches. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Blank. |
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| Comments |
The Asiatic Banking Corporation was a British overseas bank incorporated in 1863 with ambitions to compete in the China and India trade corridors, but it collapsed in 1866 — one of several casualties of the Overend, Gurney & Co. crisis that triggered a severe London banking panic that May. Notes from this issuer almost certainly had negligible circulation before the bank went under, meaning surviving examples were likely never spent.
Smith, Elder & Co. are better remembered as publishers — Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë — than as banknote printers, which makes their involvement here an oddity worth noting.