1 Liang = 1 Tael

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.