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500 Dollars
| Issuer | Asiatic Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1862 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black on a blue guilloche underprint, the note carries the bank's circular heraldic seal at upper centre, flanked by two oval panels each inscribed FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Multilingual legends appear in Tamil, Chinese, Jawi (Arabic script), and English across the upper border and lateral cartouches, with the promise-to-pay text in italic script occupying the central field. The large numeral 500 forms a lathe-work underprint at lower centre, above the place and date line reading SINGAPORE and the manuscript authority line By order of the Court of Directors, with signature fields for Entd., Acct., and Manager at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is unprinted, plain paper, with obverse impression visible as a faint show-through of the multilingual text and guilloche patterns. |
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| Comments |
The Asiatic Banking Corporation was chartered in London in 1863 — which makes a note dated 1862 an anomaly worth examining. The most plausible explanation is that the plates were prepared and dated before the formal charter was granted, a not uncommon sequence when founding shareholders were confident of parliamentary approval and moved ahead with printing to accelerate operations. The bank ultimately failed in 1866, caught in the widespread panic that followed the collapse of Overend, Gurney & Company.
Smith, Elder & Co. are better remembered as publishers — Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë — than as security printers, and their engraving work for banknotes was a minor sideline. At the $500 denomination, surviving examples of any Asiatic Banking Corporation note are extremely rare.