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100 Rupees
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation, Colombo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1876 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green-tinted note with an elaborate guilloche border of interlocking scalloped lacework framing the entire face. The Royal Arms vignette occupies the upper centre, flanked on both sides by the numeral '100' in large format within ornamental panels, with Sinhalese and Tamil script legends in the upper corners. The central text block carries the bank name 'THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION' in bold letterpress, beneath which the promise-to-pay clause reads 'ONE HUNDRED RUPEES', dated 'Colombo Ceylon 1st Jany 1876' in manuscript-style print, with 'By order of the Court of Directors' and manuscript signature lines for Accountant and Manager at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | රලිගල්සියයයි நாநூற்றுபாய் Incorporated by Royal Charter THE ORIENTAL BANK CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at their Office here ONE HUNDRED RUPEES Value received By order of the Court of Directors ColomboCeylon 1st Jany 1876 C6701 Accountant Manager |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation was a British overseas bank chartered in 1842 that expanded aggressively across Asia and the Pacific — Ceylon, India, Australia, China, Japan. The Colombo branch issued notes in its own right, which was standard practice for the OBC's colonial network. What makes 1876 particularly pointed is that the bank was already in serious trouble by this date; it collapsed entirely in 1884, wiped out by bad loans in Mauritius and a series of liquidity crises that London management consistently refused to acknowledge publicly.
Notes printed locally in Colombo rather than in London are the rarer class within OBC material. The 1884 failure meant redemption was never completed, leaving a portion of outstanding notes permanently unredeemed.