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1 Yuan
| Issuer | Central Bank of Manchukuo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Printed in dark grey-brown on a light ground, the obverse carries a central vignette of Confucius in imperial court robes, facing left, set within an elaborate guilloche oval bearing the large numeral '1'. Flanking the central motif are two symmetrical dragon vignettes in intaglio, their bodies entwined amid scrollwork. The bank title 滿洲中央銀行 (Central Bank of Manchou) appears in Chinese characters across the upper centre, with the denomination 壹圓 to the right, serial number and block number printed in red at top-left and bottom-right corners, and the romanised legend '1 YUAN' repeated at lower-left and lower-right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection description | Snowflake / chrysanthemum pattern watermark visible in the paper. |
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| Comments |
Manchukuo was a Japanese puppet state established in 1932 across the former Manchurian provinces of China, and its Central Bank functioned essentially as a branch instrument of Japanese imperial economic policy rather than an independent monetary authority. By 1944, Japan's military position was deteriorating sharply, and wartime paper shortages affected production quality across the entire Dainippon output for this series — later printings show noticeably thinner stock than earlier issues.
The watermark is the primary security feature, a relatively modest specification for a note already deep into wartime austerity conditions. Manchukuo's currency was officially pegged to the Japanese yen at par, a rate enforced by fiat rather than any credible reserve backing.