10 Dollars

The General Bank of Communications (交通银行) was formally established by imperial edict in 1907 to consolidate control over railways, postal services, and telegraphs — its note-issuing function was almost secondary to that original mandate. By 1909 it had secured the right to issue banknotes redeemable in silver dollars, though public confidence in paper currency remained fragile after decades of poorly backed provincial issues.

CMPA, a French-operated press working out of Shanghai's International Settlement, handled several early Republican and late Qing-era commissions. The choice of a foreign concession printer was deliberate — it offered a degree of political insulation and technical consistency that domestic facilities could not reliably match at the time.

Pick A19 is among the earliest documented issues of the series, predating the 1912 reorganization that transformed the bank into one of the four major government banks of the Republic.