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10 Rupees Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on red underprint; allegorical enthroned female figure with lions at left, bust of Mercury with caduceus at right, and the British coat of arms at upper centre. Bilingual denomination in Sinhala and Tamil script flanks the central text block. Engraved by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co., London. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 10 TEN රුපියල් දහයයි பத்துரூபாய் (Translation: Ten rupees.) |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation was among the earliest British overseas banks to issue currency in the Indian subcontinent, operating under a royal charter that permitted note issue across several Asian territories. By 1881 the bank was already in serious trouble — it had suffered catastrophic losses on Ceylon coffee plantation loans after the blight of the 1870s wiped out the colony's main crop. The bank collapsed entirely in 1884, just three years after this note was printed, making late-series examples like this one survivors of a very short final window of issue.
Bradbury Wilkinson handled the plates. The liquidation was swift enough that significant quantities of unissued stock were never released.