100 Dollars

The Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation was one of three note-issuing commercial banks in colonial Hong Kong, a privilege it held under ordinance rather than by central bank mandate. HSBC's right to issue currency was not a formality — it came with strict reserve requirements and made the bank directly responsible for maintaining public confidence in the note supply, particularly during periods of stress like the Japanese occupation and the postwar reconstruction years.

Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London, as they did for much of the HSBC colonial-era output. Pick 146 belongs to a transitional phase in the bank's note design history before the more heavily security-printed issues of the later decades.