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10 000 Yuan Central Bank of China
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Yuan (1912-1948) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行銀央中 圓萬壹 印年六十三國民華中 司公限有魯拉拉德·斯馬托敦倫 (Translation: Central Bank of China Ten Thousand Yuan Printed in the 36th year of the Republic of China Thomas De La Rue and Company Limited London) |
| Reverse description | Intricate red guilloche patterns fill the entire field, with a large central floral rosette medallion flanked by symmetrical guilloche panels displaying the numeral 10,000 on each side. The bank name THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA is inscribed across the top in bold lettering, with TEN THOUSAND YUAN in three lines at centre and the year 1947 below. Two signature lines appear at the lower left and lower right, identifying the Asst. Gen. Manager and General Manager respectively. |
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| Comments |
By 1947, the Central Bank of China was printing in denominations that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier. Hyperinflation driven by wartime military expenditure and postwar Nationalist-Communist hostilities was destroying purchasing power faster than the presses could respond — the 10,000 Yuan note, enormous by prewar standards, was becoming inadequate almost as soon as it circulated.
Thomas De La Rue printed this in London while China was in open civil war. The logistical reality of commissioning high-denomination emergency currency from a British security printer 8,000 miles away says something about the Nationalist government's continued reliance on foreign printing infrastructure even as its political position was collapsing.