100 Dollars

HSBC's early Hong Kong dollar notes were printed in London by Metchim & Son, a firm better known for legal and official stationery than for banknote production — an unusual choice at a time when specialist security printers dominated the field. The bank was still relatively young, having been founded in 1865, and its note-issuing operation in the 1880s was expanding rapidly to meet trade financing demands across the treaty port network.

Survivors from this 1881 issue are exceptionally rare. High-denomination notes of this period circulated primarily among merchant houses and were frequently remitted, cancelled, and destroyed rather than retained.