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1 Yuan The Sino-Scandinavian Bank
| Issuer | The Sino-Scandinavian Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 11 (1922) |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Green and multicolor note with an oval central vignette engraved in intaglio, showing a stone arch bridge reflected in a tranquil pond surrounded by trees. Elaborate guilloche underprint in pink, blue, and dark green fills the background, with large Chinese numeral denomination characters at left and right margins. The bank name in Chinese characters (華威銀行) appears at top center, with the place name 天津 (Tientsin) at lower center and two red seal chops flanking the promise text. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green, the reverse carries a central oval vignette of a Viking longship under sail on open water, set within a fine guilloche border. The bank title THE SINO-SCANDINAVIAN BANK is displayed in a bold ribbon panel at top, with the promise clause in script lettering below it, and the denomination ONE YUAN in a rectangular cartouche beneath the central vignette. The place name TIENTSIN and date FEB. 1ST 1922 appear at lower center, flanked by two manuscript signatures, with decorative quatrefoil corner ornaments throughout. |
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| Comments |
The Sino-Scandinavian Bank was a Sino-foreign joint venture established in Beijing in 1919 with Danish and Norwegian financial backing — one of several foreign-affiliated banks operating in China under the treaty port system that allowed such institutions to issue their own circulating notes. Its lifespan was short; the bank had effectively ceased meaningful operations by the mid-1920s, which keeps surviving note issues scarce relative to the major foreign banks of the period.
Printing by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Peking rather than a European security printer was unusual for a foreign-affiliated bank of this vintage — most contemporaries contracted De La Rue or Waterlow. The year notation follows the Republic of China calendar, year 11 corresponding to 1922.