1 Yuan Bank of Chinan

The Bank of Chinan (Chi-Nan Yinhang) was a Japanese-sponsored institution established in 1938 to serve the occupied territories of Shandong province. Its notes were part of a broader currency replacement strategy aimed at displacing Chinese Nationalist and existing regional currencies — forcing local populations to transact in instruments tied to Japanese occupation authority.

The 1939 dating places this note in the bank's earliest operational period. Counterfeiting of occupation-era regional issues was widespread, and the Nationalist government actively encouraged it as an economic disruption tactic.