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1 Liang = 1 Tael
| Issuer | Shan Hsi Zing Fun Bank (西豐銀行) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1912 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Tael (1890-1919) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark olive-green and purple on a pale yellow ground, with a decorative guilloche border in purple framing the entire note. A central circular vignette contains a coiling dragon motif, with the large Chinese character denomination 壹兩 (One Liang) inscribed within. Vertical columns of Chinese text appear to the left and right of the central vignette, with an official red seal impression at the lower left reading the Republic of China Year One (中華民國元年印). |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in dark blue on a cream ground, dominated by a central intaglio vignette of a busy street scene with horse-drawn vehicles, rickshaws, telegraph poles, and distant buildings rendered in fine line engraving. The bank name SHAN HSI ZING FUN BANK arcs across the top in bold Latin capitals, flanked by the numeral 1 in each upper corner. The denomination ONE LIANG appears in a straight legend along the lower border, with a serial number prefix A and a red official seal impressed at the right margin. |
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| Comments |
The Shan Hsi Zing Fun Bank was one of the numerous provincial private banks operating in Shanxi that briefly flourished in the chaotic financial environment following the Xinhai Revolution and the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. Many such institutions issued notes denominated in taels rather than yuan precisely because local merchants and trade networks in the inland northwest still operated on silver tael weights rather than the minted coin system the new Republic was trying to standardize.
Shanxi had a deep native banking tradition through the old piaohao draft banks, but the Zing Fun Bank was not among that established class — it was a newer, smaller institution whose notes circulated only within a limited regional catchment. Most such banks collapsed or were absorbed within a few years of the Republic's currency reforms tightening.
P#S2593 is rare precisely because short-lived provincial issuers produced small print runs and retained few records.