100 Dollars

The Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation was privately chartered — not a central bank — yet by the 1890s it was functioning as Hong Kong's de facto currency authority, issuing notes that circulated across treaty ports from Shanghai to Yokohama. This $100 note represents serious commercial denomination for the period; routine trade transactions rarely required it, making actual circulation wear uncommon on surviving examples.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement dates to the bank's earliest plate contracts, and the relationship remained exclusive for decades. The 1895 series predates the currency disruptions caused by the global silver price collapse of the late 1890s, which forced significant monetary adjustments across silver-standard economies throughout the region.