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1 Fen
| Issuer | Federal Reserve Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1938 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 97 × 53 mm |
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| Obverse description | Light brown print over a pale green guilloche underprint. A central vignette presents the seventeen-arch bridge at the Summer Palace, rendered in fine line engraving. Bank name, denomination, date, and printer's imprint appear in Chinese characters above and below the central design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in dark reddish-brown on an intricate guilloche underprint composed of repeating fret and diaper patterns. The design is dominated by a central lobed cartouche enclosing the Chinese character 壹 (one) flanked by ornate rosettes, with the numeral 1 set within circular lathe-work medallions to the left and right, all framed by elaborate scrollwork corner ornaments. |
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| Comments |
The Federal Reserve Bank of China was not a central bank in any conventional sense — it was a Japanese-controlled monetary authority established in Peiping (Beijing) in March 1938, weeks after the fall of Nanking, to manage occupied northern China's currency and displace the Nationalist fabi. This 1 Fen belongs to the bank's earliest emission, issued almost simultaneously with the institution's founding.
The Printing Bureau of the Administrative Commission was itself a Japanese-directed organ. Notes from this first series circulated primarily in Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong, where the occupying forces had the strongest administrative grip. Low-denomination fen notes bore the heaviest circulation wear — used daily in markets where the fabi was being forcibly withdrawn.