Catalog
100 000 - Hell Bank Note
| Issuer | 天堂地府銀行 (Heaven and Hell Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Religious banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in red and green on cream paper, the obverse carries a scrollwork banner at the top bearing the bank name in Chinese characters, flanked by elaborate foliate guilloche borders. To the right, a portrait vignette within an octagonal frame depicts the Jade Emperor in imperial regalia and headdress, while to the left a large rosette medallion contains the denomination characters 拾萬. Two circular seal stamps in red appear in the centre field above a green floral underprint, with the denomination 100000 repeated in each corner cartouche. |
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| Reverse description | Printed in dark brown on cream paper, the reverse is dominated by a central vignette of a traditional Chinese palatial temple with a double-tiered roof, set within an arched foliate frame flanked by ornate stone columns. The denomination 100000 appears in bold numerals in circular cartouches at upper left and right, and in solid rectangular panels at lower left and right. Below the central vignette, a horizontal legend in large Chinese characters reads 南無阿彌陀佛 (Namo Amitabha Buddha), and a decorative frieze of stylised leaf motifs runs along the upper border. |
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| Comments |
Hell money is a form of joss paper — votive currency burned as offerings so that the deceased may spend it in the afterlife. The practice blends traditional Chinese ancestor veneration with a pragmatic afterlife economy: burn it here, the recipient spends it there. The denomination arms inflation on the other end; why send 10 dollars when you can send 100,000?
These are not legal tender, never were, and no bank backs them. The "Heaven and Hell Bank" is a fiction created entirely for ritual purposes, though Hong Kong printmakers have long produced them as a small commercial cottage industry sold through temple goods shops.