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50 Rupees Oriental Bank Corporation
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Rupee (1871-1972) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Red and green letterpress print with intricate guilloche work filling the entire field. Two female heads face each other at centre within an ornate vignette, flanked by the denomination numeral 50 in each corner within circular guilloche medallions. Sinhala and Tamil inscriptions appear in rectangular panels at left and right. |
| Reverse lettering | 50 රුපියල්පනහයි ஐம்பது ரூபாய் (Translation: Fifty rupees.) |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation collapsed in May 1884, making any note issued in the years immediately prior — this 1881 specimen among them — part of a very short final chapter. The bank had operated across India, Ceylon, China, and Australia since the 1840s, but a run of bad agricultural loans in Ceylon and exposure to failing indigo plantations gutted its reserves. The British government declined to intervene.
Bradbury Wilkinson produced the plate in London, a common arrangement for colonial banking paper where security printing infrastructure in the issuing territory was inadequate. Notes returned to London for printing and shipped back out — sometimes months passed between production and deployment.