Banknote Index

India Series A Banknotes

With the increasing popularity of collecting Indian notes (and the prices they are now fetching). It is surprising how much we don't know and how much is incorrectly referenced about India’s series A issues. There are missing denominations, signatures, incorrectly described signatories, dates and a mismatch of dates versus signatures. It can be confusing and expensive, especially if sellers use the old trap "Not listed in Pick" as a way to push up prices.

Series A consists of 2 distinct types of notes, the first has the portrait of Queen Victoria and are dated from 1861-1865 with the following known denominations:

• 5 rupee. Specimen only dated 1858, it is assumed that no 5 rupee notes were issued for circulation.
• 10 rupee.
• 20 rupee.
• 50 rupee.
• 100 rupee.
• 500 rupee.
• 1,000 rupee.

The second series does not have a portrait at all and are referred as such (non portrait) in both series the notes are uniface (only printed on one side). The second series notes are known to have been produced in denominations of:

• 5 rupee.
• 10 rupee.
• 20 rupee.
• 50 rupee.
• 100 rupee.
• 500 rupee.
• 1,000 rupee.
• 10,000 rupee.

British India 1914

Thanks to Ministry for Culture and Heritage


Bank of Madras, approximately 1905
India Illustrated, Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries

Branch or Circle of Issue

All notes up until 1918 had a branch or circle as it is known in India of issue identified on the note. The earlier notes had the full name of the circle and in some cases more than one circle was shown on the note. For the notes of the Victorian portrait, these would carry the signatures of each circle. In the case of the non-portrait notes these had a single signature only regardless of how many branches. Later notes had a single letter to identify the circle, usually the first letter of the location or the second letter when a clash occurred as is the case as C= Calcutta A= Cawnpore. Notes in 5 & 10 rupee denomination ceased having a branch/circle identification around 1918 the larger denomination notes however continued with the circle identification in one form or another.

The letters used for each location are:

• A = Cawnpore
• B = Bombay
• C = Calcutta
• K = Karachi
• L = Lahore
• M = Madras
• R = Rangoon
• V = Lahore (reported not confirmed)
• W = Cawnpore (reported not confirmed)
• Y = Lahore (Reported not confirmed)
• Calicut - Only seen as whole word no known abbreviations

With portrait of Queen Victoria

Dates

All notes of these issues are dated. The date more than likely pertains to the date of printing requirements* in Great Britain and not the actual issue date of the note. For the lower denominations the dates are relatively close to issue date however as the denominations increase the gap between printing and issue date can also increase. Further to this the actual date of printing was used so a multitude of different dates can appear for a type and therefore should not be regarded as any rarer or common than any other date by variety comparison.

* There are some instances when the date code in the watermark which confirms the date the paper was manufactured is in the future compared to the date printed on the note, in some cases by years. Batch code numbers depicted a letter, 2 digits space 2 digits which denoted the mould type week no and the year therefore b 22 03 depicted mould B week 22 year 1903. With this unexplained fact we can only assume the true meaning of the printed date.

Without portrait

Anomalies

Specimen notes of the era remained unsigned or were signed 'cancelled" or "Signature". There are "issued" unsigned notes known for Rangoon Cawnpore and Bombay thanks to two shipwrecks being the SS. Egypt and the SS. Shirala which sank carrying unsigned notes. SS. Shirala torpedoed by a German U Boat in 1918 was carrying 5 & 10 rupee notes. Some of these notes washed ashore and were "salvaged". The S.S. Egypt was carrying a much larger selection of notes and denominations hower they were not salvaged until 1933 when this series was no longer in circulation. The notes were largely ignored by the Indian government, all notes from this salvage were heavily soiled. Notes are known to have had the signatures removed (cut out) and half notes are also known to exist. The half notes were deliberately cut in half for transport to discourage theft. The halves would leave at different times, take a different route to their final destination where they were rematched and stuck back together, having a stuck together note is quite common.