1 Yuan

The Federal Reserve Bank of China was not a sovereign central bank in any meaningful sense — it was a Japanese-controlled institution established in 1938 to manage currency in the occupied northern Chinese territories. This note was part of the initial issuance designed to displace existing Chinese Nationalist currency, the fabi, which Japanese authorities actively sought to drain from circulation in the occupied zone.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Peking was already an established facility, having served earlier Republican-era issuers. Japanese occupation authorities retained and repurposed it rather than importing plates or contracting foreign printers — a practical choice that gave the series a locally produced character unusual among puppet-state currencies of the period.