Nilaish Banknotes World

By Nilaish, MBA Life Member of IBNS-IBCC  "Earliest Currency notes in India known so far by Bank of Bengal is dated 1812 and is an uniface note. Later issues after 1822 shows the name of the engraver and the printer of the currency notes."  A Brief Timeline of Perkins & Bacon Co. London  1808-1810 Jacob Perkins and Gideon Fairman produce the first known books in the USA to use steel plates. ~1816 Jacob Perkins has "soft steel" plates to engrave on, and a method to harden the plates, and a process. 1818 (April 15), Heath discussed the American bank notes printed by Perkins at the Society of Arts Committee on Forgery. Bank of England was offering a £20,000 prize for unforgeable notes. 1819 (May 31) Perkins sets sail for England after communicating with Charles Heath. 1819 (June 29) Perkins arrives in Liverpool, England. 1819 (July) Sir Joseph Banks met with Perkins. 1819 (December 20) The Heaths join Perk...

By Nilaish, MBA Life Member of IBNS - Indian Banknote Collector's Chapter  Introduction Sir James Braid Taylor Image Courtesy: Vaidya Nadhan  Sir James Braid Taylor ,  KCIE ,  Kt ,  ICS  (21 April 1891 – 17 February 1943) was the second  Governor of the Reserve Bank of India , holding office from 1 July 1937 until his death on 17 February 1943. He succeeded Sir Osborne Smith who was the Governor from 1 April 1935 to 30 June 1937. He was appointed a CIE in the 1933 New Year Honours List, knighted in the 1935 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours List and further appointed a KCIE in the 1939 Birthday Honours List. Taylor, a member of the  Indian Civil Service , served as a Deputy Controller in the Currency Department of the Government of India for over a decade. He later became the Controller of Currency, and additionally secretary in the Finance Department. He then became the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank and succeeded Sm...

Note: Bank of Bengal was originally established as Bank of Calcutta in 1806 and later in 1809 it received Charter from Governor General in Council, Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto commonly referred as, Lord Minto in India. The bank issued banknotes as early as 1810 in the Bengal Presidency. Gold Mohur notes were issued from 1816 as mentioned by Symes (1904). The design advanced and so the printing technology. The Perkins Heath steel hardened plates were used to print the notes between 1822 and 1836 (?). The notes were circulated in lieu of a Gold Mohur  (Shown above) coin! The signatures were cut off, if they were paid off or sometimes officials left very few notes with the CANCELLED stamp only. These notes (Shown above) which contain signatures intact are exceedingly rare. After a long wait of 12 years, I am able to have this example ... what a lovely note! Please note that this note is stolen from my collection.  Reference: Scutt Symes, G...