27 Rupees Bikaner: Hundi promissory note

Hundi instruments from the princely states occupy an awkward position in numismatic collecting — legally negotiable instruments, not government currency, yet issued under state authority and circulating as money in practice. Bikaner's treasury used the hundi format for internal transfers and merchant settlements well into the twentieth century, operating largely outside the colonial banking framework that had absorbed most major princely finance by the late nineteenth century.

The denomination of 27 rupees is characteristically non-round, reflecting the hundi's function as a settlement document tied to a specific transaction value rather than a face-value store of exchange.