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50 Dollars
| Issuer | Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1895 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | $50 INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER PENANG THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its OFFICE here Fifty Dollars in Local Currency for Value received. BY ORDER OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS SPECIMEN |
| Reverse description | Entirely engraved in green, with a dense guilloche lattice filling the field. A central oval cartouche bears the bank name in two lines around a lozenge-shaped FIFTY panel. Corner medallions contain small vignettes including a sailing vessel and an elephant. The word FIFTY is repeated diagonally in each quadrant, with numeral 50 at all four corners. |
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| Comments |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1853 and operated as one of the principal exchange banks across British commercial routes from Calcutta to Hong Kong. Its banknotes circulated in treaty ports and colonial trading hubs where no single sovereign currency dominated — meaning these notes functioned less as national tender and more as instruments of mercantile credit between major trading houses.
Batho, Sprague & Co. produced security printing for several British overseas banking concerns in the late nineteenth century, though they operated in the shadow of better-known firms like Perkins Bacon and De La Rue. A $50 denomination at this date would have been a high-value instrument, far beyond everyday retail use — the kind of note settled between counting houses, not across shop counters.