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5 Rupees
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869-1894 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Guilloche |
| Protection description | Intricate engine-turned circular guilloche rosette on reverse, composed of seven interlocking medallions with concentric fine-line patterns serving as an anti-counterfeiting device. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation, chartered in Bombay in 1842, was one of the great colonial exchange banks — and one of the most spectacular failures. It collapsed in 1884 under a wave of bad Ceylon coffee plantation loans, wiped out by the hemileia vastatrix fungus that destroyed South Asian coffee cultivation in the 1870s and 1880s. The bank was formally wound up in 1892, which makes the broad date range on notes from this series worth scrutinizing: anything issued after May 1884 was produced under the receiver, not the functioning bank.
Perkins, Bacon's involvement is unsurprising — the London firm held engraving contracts across the British colonial banking world throughout the nineteenth century.