10 000 Customs Gold Units

The Customs Gold Unit was a fiscal accounting currency introduced by the Nationalist government in 1930 to collect maritime tariffs independently of the depreciating silver yuan. By 1947, hyperinflation had made high-denomination CGU notes a practical necessity — this 10,000-unit note would have represented a serious sum just two years earlier but was rapidly losing purchasing power as the civil war against the Communists drained Nationalist finances.

Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London, a logistical arrangement that itself reflects how little control Nanjing retained over its own monetary infrastructure by this stage. The CGU system was formally abolished in 1948 when the Gold Yuan reform swept it away entirely.