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20 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1875 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green, the reverse presents a densely ornamented guilloche design with the bank name arranged in a central oval cartouche surrounding a smaller lozenge vignette inscribed TWENTY. The word TWENTY is repeated in each corner and along the lateral margins in large letters, with numeral 20 in all four corners. Small vignettes of an elephant and a bull appear within circular medallions on the left and right margins respectively, and a crowned medallion is set at the upper centre. The border is composed of interlocking geometric lathe-work typical of the period's security printing. |
| Reverse lettering | 20 TWENTY THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA AUSTRALIA AND CHINA SPECIMEN |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was one of the great British exchange banks of the nineteenth century, chartered by royal warrant in 1853 and operating across a network of Asian ports where sterling-denominated private banknotes functioned as genuine trade currency. A $20 note from 1875 would have circulated in Hong Kong, Singapore, or one of the treaty port branches — most likely denominated in Mexican dollars, the dominant silver trade unit across the region at that date.
Surviving examples from the 1870s issues of the Chartered Bank are exceptionally rare. Branch cancellation practices were aggressive, and notes returned to head office were routinely defaced or destroyed rather than archived.