100 Dollars

The Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation's right to issue currency in Hong Kong dated back to its founding ordinance of 1866, making it one of the few private banks in the world with a continuous and legally protected note-issuing privilege stretching across colonial and post-colonial governance. By 1904, HSBC notes circulated alongside those of the Chartered Bank and, briefly, the Government itself, in a system that had no central bank to coordinate or backstop issuance.

P#159 is a scarce early survivor from a period when large-denomination HSBC notes were actively used in interbank settlement and trade finance rather than retail commerce. High-value notes of this era were frequently cancelled and destroyed once their purpose was served, which accounts for the near-total absence of circulated examples today.