10 Yuan Bank of Kirin

The Bank of Kirin was one of several provincial banks reconstituted under Nationalist Chinese authority in Manchuria immediately after Japan's surrender in August 1945. The timing matters: the Soviet Red Army had stripped Manchurian industry bare before withdrawing, and the region was already contested between Nationalist and Communist forces. Currency issued here in 1946 was operating in an economy that was functionally collapsing before the ink was dry.

Pick S3061 belongs to a series with notoriously short circulation windows — Communist forces took Kirin city by 1948, and Nationalist provincial paper became worthless almost overnight. Survivors are typically found in lower grades, reflecting hasty wartime handling rather than heavy commercial use.