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100 Dollars
| Issuer | Imperial Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1898 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#A54A |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 中國通商銀行 壹百圓 上海通用銀圓 大清光緒二十四年 祇認票不認人 執票為據 |
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| Variants | P#A54Aa - Issued note P#A54Ar - Remainder perforated: CANCELLED |
| Comments |
The Imperial Bank of China was established by imperial edict in 1897 as China's first modern bank, modeled on Western banking institutions and intended to manage government finances. This 100 Dollar note, printed by Barclay & Fry in London, belongs to the bank's inaugural issue — produced before the institution had even established the operational infrastructure to circulate them effectively.
The denomination is exceptionally high for the period. Notes of this value saw negligible retail circulation and were handled almost exclusively in large mercantile transactions, if at all. The bank collapsed into irrelevance after the 1911 revolution, and high-denomination survivors are rare precisely because so few were ever actually used.