1 Yuan / Dollar Canton

The Central Bank of China's 1949 yuan issues appeared as the Nationalist government was in outright collapse — the People's Liberation Army took Nanjing in April, and by the time many of these notes reached circulation channels, the issuing authority had effectively ceased to function on the mainland. The "Canton Dollar" designation reflects an attempt to stabilize currency in southern China during the final Nationalist retreat, pegging value to the old silver dollar unit rather than the catastrophically inflated gold yuan.

Zhonghua Book Company, a Beijing-based commercial printer with roots in the Republican publishing trade, produced this series — an unusual choice given that state printing works had handled most earlier Central Bank issues.