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1 Dollar - Hell Bank Note
| Issuer | 冥通銀行 (Hell Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Central oval vignette contains a bust portrait of the Jade Emperor in imperial robes and court hat, flanked by a denomination cartouche at left and a circular pagoda seal vignette at right. Green guilloche underprint of repeating fan motifs covers the field, with ornate scrollwork border and two manuscript signatures below the central portrait. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 壹圓 HELL BANK NOTE 壹圓 1 DOLLARS 銀行 玉皇 壹圓 香港安泰隆出品 ON TAI LUNG HONG KONG |
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| Comments |
Hell Bank Notes are ritual joss paper produced for burning at funerals and ancestral offerings, the idea being that the smoke delivers currency to the deceased in the afterlife. The practice draws on centuries of Chinese folk religion, blending Buddhist and Taoist traditions around the concept of merit transfer. "冥通銀行" translates roughly as "Bank of Hades" or "Infernal Communication Bank" — the name is a direct parody of formal banking institution naming conventions, which is part of the joke and part of the ritual seriousness simultaneously.
On Tai Lung is one of several Hong Kong-based printers supplying this market. These are not legal tender under any jurisdiction and have no numismatic value in the conventional sense, though they attract collectors of exonumia and folk religion ephemera.