10 Dollars Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered's authority to issue banknotes in Hong Kong derived from an 1845 ordinance that has never been revoked — making it one of the few commercial banks anywhere still exercising a statutory right to circulate its own currency into the 21st century. The series ran through four signature combinations across six years, with the 1988 transition to Walls and Gray coinciding with broader management restructuring at the bank following its turbulent mid-1980s near-collapse and the 1986–87 boardroom crisis that nearly ended its independent existence.

Thomas De La Rue printed the entire run in London. The notes were denominated in Hong Kong dollars but backed by US dollar reserves lodged with the Exchange Fund — a requirement introduced in 1983 when the peg was set at HK$7.80.