1 Yuan The Sino-Scandinavian Bank

The Sino-Scandinavian Bank was a foreign-affiliated institution established in Beijing in the early 1920s, one of several short-lived joint ventures attempting to plant European banking interests in the unstable Chinese market of the warlord period. It operated under Chinese law while drawing on Scandinavian capital — an unusual arrangement that gave it the right to issue currency but little of the infrastructure needed to sustain it. The bank collapsed within a few years of opening, and its notes circulated only briefly in the Beijing area before becoming worthless.

Printing was handled by the Finance Ministry Bureau in Beijing, the same government facility producing notes for state institutions — an irony given the bank's private foreign character. Surviving examples are scarce simply because the emission was small and the bank's failure came quickly.