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10 Rupees
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London & China, Galle |
|---|---|
| Year | 1880 |
| Type | Pattern or trial banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CEYLON BRANCH INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER 10 RUPEES THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA GALLE 1st July 1880 TEN RUPEES By order of the Court of Directors MANAGER பத்து ரூபாய் ஐயல் டுகயசி |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in blue and presents a plain, uncluttered layout on white paper. A large central oval guilloche panel, left blank for overprinting, is flanked on each side by a circular scalloped rosette medallion enclosing the numeral 10, all executed in fine lathe-work typical of the period. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was one of the British exchange banks operating under Royal Charter — distinct from the later Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, though the two are frequently conflated. This Galle branch issue is among the rarest surviving examples from Ceylon's private banking period. The bank collapsed in 1893 following a liquidity crisis, and branch note stocks were typically recalled and destroyed at closure, which makes surviving provincial issues disproportionately scarce relative to Colombo counterparts.
Galle was then still a significant entrepôt for the southern Indian Ocean trade routes, though by 1880 its commercial dominance was already being eroded by the expansion of Colombo harbour.