10 Yuan Bank of Communications

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.