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50 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper. Central vignette shows Britannia seated with a lion at upper centre, flanked by two oval denomination cartouches reading "50 DOLLARS" at left and right. Ornate guilloche border frames the note, with multilingual text panels in Arabic and Tamil script along the upper and lower margins. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 50 DOLLARS SINGAPORE 18__ THE CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA, LONDON & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its Branch in SINGAPORE in Local Currency, the Sum of FIFTY DOLLARS, Value received. BY ORDER OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China received its royal charter in 1853, making it one of the earliest exchange banks established specifically to finance trade between Britain and Asia. By 1861, when this note was issued, the bank operated branches across Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai — the dollar denomination placing it squarely in the China and Straits trade rather than the sterling-denominated Indian business.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were the dominant security printers of the period, their steel intaglio process making counterfeiting genuinely difficult at a time when forged colonial banknotes were a persistent commercial threat. The firm had refined the technique producing postage stamps and used the same siderographic transfer methods for high-value private bank issues.
Surviving examples from this 1861 issue are exceptionally rare — the bank's records were largely destroyed, and most circulating notes from the China trade branches were redeemed and pulped.