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10 Pounds Asiatic Banking Corporation
| Issuer | Asiatic Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1865 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 204 x 124 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress text on pink/red guilloche underprint with ornate border. Bank seal at upper centre flanked by two oval "TEN POUNDS" tablets; denomination numeral "10" in guilloche at lower centre. Sinhalese legend at top, Tamil legend at bottom, with additional script text in vertical side panels. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse is blank. |
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| Comments |
The Asiatic Banking Corporation was chartered in London in 1863 and collapsed in 1866 — one of several British overseas banks wiped out by the financial panic triggered by the failure of Overend, Gurney & Co. This note was issued and became worthless within a three-year window. The bank never recovered or reorganized, so no successor institution redeemed outstanding notes; holders were simply left with paper.
Smith, Elder & Co. was primarily known as a publishing house — they printed Charlotte Brontë and Thackeray — not a specialist banknote printer. Their involvement here reflects how thin the market for secure note printing was outside the established firms in the early 1860s.