1 Yuan Soviet Szechuan-Shensi Provincial Worker's and Farmer's Bank; cloth

One of the more unusual artifacts of the Chinese Communist base area currency system. The Szechuan-Shensi Soviet was established in late 1932 after the Fourth Red Army's push into northern Sichuan, and the provincial bank was created to fund military operations and bind local commerce to the Soviet administration. Paper was scarce in the mountain base areas — cloth notes, woven or printed on rough fabric, were a practical response to supply conditions, not a deliberate monetary experiment.

Cloth-substrate issues from any Chinese Soviet-era bank are rarely encountered. Most circulated hard, were damaged by the conditions of guerrilla-zone commerce, and were not systematically redeemed after the Red Army's 1935 withdrawal during the Long March.