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10 Yuan Bank of Communications
| Issuer | Bank of Communications |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company, New York, United States |
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| Obverse description | The central intaglio vignette presents the Second Customs House on the Bund in Shanghai, with a street tram and pedestrians in the foreground, enclosed within an ornate scrollwork frame printed in rose-red and blue over a pale guilloche underprint. Denomination medallions bearing the Chinese characters 拾圓 (Ten Yuan) occupy guilloche ovals at left and right, with the bank title 交通銀行 at top centre and 上海 (Shanghai) in large characters at lower left and right. The printer's imprint of the American Bank Note Co., New York appears along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | BANK OF COMMUNICATIONS PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT ITS OFFICE HERE TEN YUAN OF THE NATIONAL COINAGE OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA. SHANGHAI OCTOBER 1ST, 1914 AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Communications was established in 1908 under the Qing dynasty to manage railway and postal revenues, making it one of the few Chinese institutions with a genuinely commercial mandate rather than a purely fiscal one. By 1914, with the Republic barely three years old and the old Imperial financial structure dismantled, the bank was among a small handful of institutions that Yuan Shikai's government trusted to issue national currency — a privilege it shared only with the Bank of China.
ABNC produced the plates in New York, and the quality of the intaglio work reflects their standard export-grade output for Asian clients of this period. The 1914 series circulated across multiple provinces but was frequently subject to regional suspension orders, particularly during the warlord fragmentation after 1916, when local military governors routinely refused to honor notes issued under central authority.