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500 Dollars
| Issuer | Oriental Bank Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1840 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress and intaglio print in black on white paper. The Royal Arms vignette, flanked by the lion and unicorn supporters, appears at upper centre above the bank title and promise-to-pay text. The face carries manuscript accountant and manager endorsements at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain unprinted paper reverse, with age toning and foxing stains visible across the surface. |
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| Comments |
The Oriental Bank Corporation — chartered in Bombay in 1842, though operating under earlier incarnations from the 1840s — was one of the first British overseas banks to issue notes across multiple Asian territories simultaneously, including India, Ceylon, China, and eventually Australia and East Africa. A $500 denomination in 1840 was not a note for ordinary commerce; it was a settlement instrument, moving between merchants and agency houses rather than passing through retail hands.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch's steel-engraved work from this period is among the most technically accomplished banknote printing of the nineteenth century, their intaglio processes directly anticipating the security printing standards that followed. The bank itself collapsed in 1884 during the colonial credit crisis, making early survivor notes genuinely rare.