10 Yuan Tung Pei Bank of China, violet

The Tung Pei Bank of China — the Northeast Bank — was established by the Chinese Communist Party to consolidate financial control over Manchuria immediately after Soviet forces expelled the Japanese in August 1945. This note belongs to that initial issue, printed under extremely provisional conditions before the CCP had secured stable administrative infrastructure in the northeast. The region was simultaneously being contested by Nationalist forces, and currency issuance was as much a political act as an economic one.

The S-prefix in the Pick reference reflects its classification as a regional scrip rather than a central government emission. Surviving examples from this 1945 series tend to show heavy fold wear — these circulated hard in a war-disrupted economy.