Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Yuan / Dollar Bank of China
| Issuer | Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Yuan = 1 Dollar |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by an oval vignette at right containing an intaglio engraving of a classical Chinese gateway with figures in the foreground, surrounded by an ornate guilloche border. To the left, the denomination 壹圓 (One Yuan) is rendered in large Chinese characters within a lobed decorative frame, flanked by corner panels bearing the place name 天津 (Tientsin). The bank title 中國銀行兌換券 appears at the top in Chinese, with the imprint of American Bank Note Company at the bottom. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is executed in green intaglio with an elaborate bilateral guilloche pattern filling the entire field, centred on a large numeral "1" underprint flanked by symmetrical floral and scroll vignettes. The legend "BANK OF CHINA" appears at the top, with the promise-to-pay text and denomination "ONE / LOCAL CURRENCY" inscribed on a central banner. Serial numbers appear at upper left and right, with the date "1ST MAY 1917" and place name "TIENTSIN" printed at the lower centre, accompanied by two manuscript signatures and the American Bank Note Company imprint. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Bank of China's 1917 dollar notes were issued in a politically fractured China — the republican government in Beijing was nominally in control, but regional warlords and competing financial interests made uniform currency circulation deeply uneven. The American Bank Note Company had been supplying Chinese financial institutions with engraved notes since the late Qing period, and by 1917 ABNC work was considered a mark of institutional credibility in the treaty-port banking world.
Pick 38 exists in multiple place-name varieties — Shanghai, Peking, Tientsin, Harbin, and others — each overprinted or printed for a specific branch, which affects relative scarcity considerably. Collectors frequently undervalue the rarer branch designations when comparing against the more common Shanghai issues.