Catalog
10 Yuan
| Issuer | Yick Kee Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1927 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Vertically oriented note printed in green and white, with an ornate guilloche border framing the upper portion, which carries the English legends 'THE YICK KEE BANK' and 'MACAO'. The body is dominated by vertical Chinese text stating the denomination and the name of the issuing bank, with the date recorded in Chinese Republican calendar format at the lower left. Two red seal impressions appear at the lower portion alongside handwritten notations. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE YICK KEE BANK MACAO 益記銀行 廣東雙毫銀拾圓整 憑單交 民國丁卯年拾月拾六日 李肇鴻堂叔 |
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| Comments |
The Yick Kee Bank was a small private Chinese bank operating in the Pearl River Delta region during the fractious warlord period — exactly the kind of local institution that issued notes to meet cash shortages when larger banking networks were unreliable or absent. Private bank notes of this type circulated alongside government issues, military scrip, and foreign bank paper in a fiercely competitive and largely unregulated monetary environment.
Printing in Macao rather than Hong Kong or Shanghai suggests deliberate distance from the British colonial financial apparatus. Survival rate for minor private Chinese bank issues of this period is low — most were redeemed, repudiated, or simply wore out in heavy local trade use.