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| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949 |
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| Value | 10 Yuan = 10 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of Sun Yat-sen within an oval vignette at right, set against an elaborate guilloche underprint in red. The large denomination numerals 拾圓 occupy the centre of the note, flanked by ornamental floral corner devices and the prefix and serial numbers in red at upper left and right. The issuer's name and series inscriptions appear in Chinese characters across the upper and lower registers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行銀央中 券元銀 圓拾 重 慶 年八十三國民華中 (Translation: Central Bank of China Silver Yuan Note Ten Yuan Chongqing Year 38 of the Chinese Republic) |
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| Comments |
By early 1949, the Nationalist government's monetary situation had already collapsed. The Gold Yuan reform of 1948 had failed catastrophically within months, wiping out urban savings and triggering hyperinflation worse than what it replaced. This note belongs to the Silver Yuan series hastily introduced in February 1949 as a successor — itself worthless within weeks of issue, as the People's Liberation Army swept south and Chongqing fell in November of that year.
That the Central Bank was printing its own notes in Chongqing at this stage reflects how fragmented Nationalist financial infrastructure had become. The series circulated so briefly that survivor populations are uneven.