100 Dollars

The North Western Bank of India was a short-lived joint-stock venture incorporated under the British raj framework that briefly competed with the Presidency banks. A dollar-denominated issue from a bank operating in India is immediately unusual — the unit points to trade circulation along routes connecting India to the Straits Settlements and coastal China, where the Spanish and later Mexican dollar remained the dominant commercial currency well into the second half of the nineteenth century.

Perkins, Bacon & Petch handled the London printing, their steel-engraved intaglio work being the standard choice for colonial banking houses seeking notes difficult to counterfeit in markets far from any redemption authority. The bank itself did not survive long enough to build a substantial circulation history.