Catalog
10 Yen in Gold
| Issuer | Bank of Taiwan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
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| Reference(s) | P#1923 |
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| Reverse description | Printed in blue, with the bank name in English across the top. A central vignette presents the Kaohsiung lighthouse, flanked by denomination numerals in Arabic and Chinese characters at all four corners and along both lateral margins. A promise-to-pay legend in English runs across the lower portion of the note, with an additional clause in Japanese citing the legal basis for the bank's note issuance. |
| Reverse lettering | 10 THE BANK OF TAIWAN LIMITED 拾 10 拾 Promises to Pay the Bearer on Demand TEN YEN in Gold. 拾 10 明治三十年三月法律第三十八號臺灣銀行法二據蕟行スルモ也 |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Taiwan was established in 1899 as a colonial financial institution under Japanese rule, tasked with managing currency across Taiwan and extending banking operations into southern China and Southeast Asia. Its early gold-denominated notes were not ordinary circulating currency — they were instruments designed to facilitate Japanese commercial penetration into regions where confidence in silver or paper yen fluctuated considerably.
The "in Gold" designation was a deliberate promise of specie convertibility, and by 1916 that promise was already under strain. Japan had suspended gold exports at the outbreak of World War I, making gold-clause notes something of a legal fiction in practice.