10 Yuan Bank of Shansi, Chahar, & Hopei

The Bank of Shansi, Chahar & Hopei was the financial arm of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, one of the most important Communist-controlled areas behind Japanese lines in northern China. This note dates from 1945, the final year of the Second Sino-Japanese War, when the border region government was simultaneously fighting Japanese forces, managing inflation, and competing monetarily with both puppet-bank currencies and Nationalist-issued notes — all circulating in overlapping zones of contested territory.

The S3172 and S3172A variants are distinguished by minor typographic or color differences, a common feature of wartime regional printings where consistency of materials was impossible to maintain. Production under guerrilla conditions meant plate quality and ink supply fluctuated issue to issue.