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10 000 Yuan Central Bank of China
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Rose-red intaglio print on a fine guilloche underprint. Central vignette is a portrait of Sun Yat-sen in three-quarter view, framed by ornate scrollwork and dragon motifs at each corner. The denomination 壹萬圓 (Ten Thousand Yuan) appears in large Chinese characters on both left and right fields, with serial numbers above and series designation 73-A flanked by red seal impressions below the portrait. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行銀央中 圓萬壹 印年六十三國民華中 司公票鈔安保商美 (Translation: Central Bank of China Ten Thousand Yuan Printed in the 36th year of the Republic of China American Security Banknote Company) |
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| Comments |
By 1947, the Central Bank of China was printing in denominations that would have been unimaginable five years earlier. Hyperinflation driven by wartime military expenditure and post-war reconstruction costs was accelerating so rapidly that the 10,000 Yuan note — a sum that once represented serious wealth — was already losing purchasing power faster than it could circulate. The Nationalist government's monetary situation was deteriorating beyond any technical remedy.
The Security Banknote Company of Philadelphia handled a significant volume of Chinese Nationalist currency during this period, one of several American and foreign firms drawn into the Republic of China's printing contracts when domestic capacity proved insufficient. Pick 319 falls within a series that was ultimately rendered worthless by the Communist victory in 1949 and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan.