The last date recorded on the Presidency Banknote of India

Bank of Bombay, 10 Rupees, S.No. A14518, Dated: 1st Nov. 1860. 

The above banknote illustrated is the one of the surviving banknote with the latest date of issue of the last type of Ten Rupees of Bank of Bombay paper money. It is found that a very few banknotes of Bank of Bombay are in private collection or even in museum. The Reserve Bank of India Monetary Museum situated at Mumbai has the first issue of 10 Rupees only (RBI Museum 2012). In the private collection a banknote with the date of  1859 of Bank of Bombay is surfaced so far. It is noted that Presidency Banknotes were abolished by the Indian Currency Act of 1861. Although a Bank of Madras 10 Rupees note dated 1861 is confirmed at SBI Museum at Kolkata. There is no example surfaced so far with the date of issue later than this banknote. 

Ten Rupees, Bank of Madras, issued on 25th July 1861 

To know more about the Presidency Banknotes of India between 1770-1861 please purchase my book for more reading on the subject, this subject was never read about and pursued as well so seriously ever!

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SPINK World Banknotes Auction on 13-12-2012: Indian Banknotes sale

SPINK & SON LTD. is the established name in banknotes auctions. It is thriving for banknotes collectors or numismatists to be there and personally view the hammering King of Banknotes, Barnaby Faull (Director, Banknotes, SPINK) selling world's rare banknotes. It is notable that SPINK was founded in the year 1666 and survived all economic climates all through these years and diversified in USA, China, Singapore, Switzerland apart from UK. The brand is recognised by every collector of rare banknotes around the world. I was invited by Mr Faull to view the Indian Banknotes auction along with the world banknotes on 13-12-2012, which had exceedingly rare banknotes of India for sale. The remarkable lots are illustrated below with their lot numbers, opening bid amount and the hammering price. It was an amazing experience to watch the activities in the auction room.

Lot#207:

Opening Bid Amount: £5,000 

Sold at: £9,200*

(*Buyers premium excluded and same below in all examples) 

Lot#208 

Opening Bid Amount: £2,500 

Sold at: £3,600 

Lot#209

Opening Bid Amount: £3,200 

Sold at: £4,000

Lot#210

Opening Bid Amount: £8,000

Sold at: £9,000

Lot#222

Opening Bid Amount: £3,600

Sold at:£3,600

Superb Set of Specimens

Lot#225

Opening Bid Amount: £5,000

Sold at: £7,200 

Lot#226

Opening Bid Amount: £12,000 

Sold at: £14,600

Lot#227

Opening Bid Amount: £16,000 

Sold at: £21,000

The above lots were stars of the Indian Paper Money sale of the SPINK here at London on 13th December 2012. There were 'Prisoners of War' paper money as well,. which also showed good jump in the auction room in terms of interest from collectors. Lot#223 was estimated and opened for bid at £400 and was sold for £1,050 and Lot #224 was estimated and  opened for bidding at £600 was sold for £1,700. Fantastic results for SPINK! I wish this company should retain its prestige for ever in the collectibles market as they are always great. 

Reported by: Nilaish Sharma FRNS (IBNS Member & Dealer)

Image Curtsey: Barnaby Faull (Director, SPINK) 

These images are used for citing the auction results and must not be used without permission of Nilaish Esq. or Mr B. Faull. In all other cases except personal use, legal complications will be invited by the violators   

  

Identify the below examples

n.1 

n.2 

n.3 

Please Identify the notes having numbers; n.1, n.2 and n.3. Please mention the image numbers while identifying them in your comments. In my opinion these (n.2, n.3) are essays and n.1 is One Rupee paper money. It will be a matter of great pleasure for me to receive your comments. 

Images are copyrighted to Nilaish ESQ.

Scarce C$4 banknote of Queen Victoria of 1859

Colonial Bank of Canada, Canadian $4 banknote,

1859 ... "59" is hand written on this note.
Printer:  American Bank Note Company, New York
Serial Number: 318.
Signed by  F. Hugh

The Young Portrait of Queen Victoria. It is very interesting to know that very few countries issued currency notes with portrait of Queen Victoria from 54 commonwealth nations during her reign. Canada is one of these commonwealth nations. This banknote is very scarce and sought by collectors of banknotes of British Monarchs. In 1858, in India one of the commonwealth nation, made a trial banknote of 5 Rupees (Razack et al. 2012) featuring Queen Victoria. Although it was not issued to the common public. Please observe the example below of a banknote issued in 1865 of 10 Rupees in India.

Government of India, 10 Rupees, Issued on 6th May 1865. Signed by H. Hydes. These portrait notes of Queen Victoria of India are exceedingly rare. Image Curtsey: Krisnan.

A £1m banknote was sold for £78,300

£1m banknote with serial number D/000008. Signed by E.E. Bridges (Secretary to the Treasury) 

Image Curtsey: bbc.co.uk 

The above high value (£1m) demonitized banknote of Great Britain was sold for £78,300 (BBC 2008) in a public auction at London. This banknote was issued on 30th August 1948. This banknote holds Guinness Book of Records for being the highest denomination note in the private hand. This banknote was auctioned by Spink & Son Ltd., the leading auctioneer of banknotes in the United Kingdom. This banknote is one of the two existing examples. The two remaining examples have serial numbers, D/000007 and D/000008. A rare banknote!   

Banknote from French Revolution of 1789

This banknote was issued in 1792 in the new regime following French Revolution of 1789. 

The above banknote of 25 Sols. (1 Livre = 1 pound = 20 Sols.) having serial number 553e was issued on 4th January 1792 when Louis XVI was in prison prior to his execution (BBC 2012). These notes were Assignat (Assigned) issues and had denominations 15 Sols., 25 Sols. and 50 Sols.  This was the era when people in the French Bourgeois Society were not safe, as this period is regarded as reign of terror. This paper money represents the social shock by depicting the 'watching eye' with National Message in French, which when translated mean, 'The nation rewards the informer'.  A very interesting banknote for knowing about the impact of French Revolution on the economy. I find this area very interesting to collect and to learn about the historical context of the notes.   

The earliest surviving Banknote of India

The story of banknotes of India is known since 1770 (Razack et al. 2012). Bank of Hindostan (1770-1832) was supposedly noted as the first issuer of the currency notes in India by (Symes 1904). Razack et al. (2012) also reports that the only known dates of the survived notes are 5th January 1827 and 28th November 1828. The first note can be found in the collection of Mr Rezwan Razack (Chairman of IBNS-Indian Banknote Chapter) and the second note, in the SBI Museum situated in Kolkata.  There is no information about exact dates of issues of other types (Razack et al. 2012) apart from the above information.

It is known that the, Bank of Bengal was established as Bank of Calcutta in 1806. The name later changed to the Bank of Bengal after receiving the Charter in 1809 by Lord Gilbert Minto, Governor General of India. The bank issued three broad characteristic types called as, Uniface Series, Commerce Series and Britannia Series (Shaikh et al. 2009). The Uniface Series thus, sets the direction to consider the era between 1810-1824, is the main area of this research. In other words, the earliest date on the surviving banknote of Uniface Series of Bank of Bengal will answer this question.

After looking the museum collection, private collections and Standard Reference guide of Indian Paper Money (Razack et al. 2012). Following notes are known which will substantiate the answer.

n.1: 250 Sicca Rupees, Type 1, Serial Number centre left. The signature which is below the denomination panel is of Henry Tyler (Refer: Charter Copy of 1809). The handwritten date on this example is 22nd October 1813. 

n.2: 500 Sicca Rupees, Type 2, Serial number top left. Signed by Henry Tyler. The manuscript date on the currency note has tiny ink burn on the last digit of the year (181X). The readable date is 30th December 1810, if the handwriting expert opinion is considered. Image Curtsey: Rezwan Razack, Bangalore. 

n.3: 250 Sicca Rupees, Type 1. The manuscript date is faded but still it can be read clearly. The date on the banknote is: 23rd October 1812. Image Curtsey: Ram Kumar. 

The above three examples states that, the known dates so far are in the order: 30th December 181X (X=0?) 23rd October 1812 and 22nd October 1813. It is a matter of opinion to prove that in n.2, the 181X (X = 0). In my opinion it is obvious that the earliest date on the banknote of India which has survived is n.2.  If n.2 is confirmed by the relevant expert that it has date of issue, 30th December 1810, it will prove n.2 as the earliest surviving banknote of India. A similar looking example of n.2 can be found in the RBI Monetary Museum (see below):

A similar looking example of 500 Sicca Rupees banknote as in n.2, dated 6th June 1818. Image Curtsey: RBI Monetary Museum. 

   

Improvements or new discoveries are welcomed by the author for revisions. 

Notes & References:

The above article has in-text citations using Harvard Referencing Technique. The list is provided here:

1. Razack, R., Jhujhunwalla, K. (2012) The Revised Standard Reference Guide of Indian Paper Money, Currencies & Coins, Mumbai. 

2. Symes, GP Scutt (1904) The History of Bank of Bengal Bank of Bengal Publication. 

3. Shaikh, B., Srinivasan, S. (2009) The Paper & The Promise Reserve Bank of India Publication, 9th ed.