Catalog
100 Patacas Banco da China
| Issuer | Banco da China (Bank of China), Macau Branch |
|---|---|
| Year | 2002-2003 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The right half of the obverse carries an intaglio vignette of the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal set against a waterfront cityscape. The left portion displays the denomination in large Chinese characters 壹佰圓 alongside Western numerals, printed over a multicolour guilloche underprint with a circular ornamental rosette at upper left. Bilingual Chinese and Portuguese inscriptions identifying the issuing bank, the governing administrative decree, and the date of issue appear along the lower centre. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Watermark in the form of the Bank of China logo, visible when held to light; embedded security thread running vertically through the note. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of China branch in Macau gained note-issuing authority in 1995, making it the second institution — alongside Banco Nacional Ultramarino — permitted to issue pataca-denominated currency under the territory's plural issuing arrangement. That structure survived the 1999 handover to China intact, a deliberate policy choice to preserve monetary stability during the transition. By the time this 2002–2003 series was printed, Banco Nacional Ultramarino had been absorbed into Caixa Geral de Depósitos, leaving the Bank of China as the only issuer with direct sovereign backing from Beijing.
The pataca's peg to the Hong Kong dollar, fixed at 1.03 MOP to 1 HKD since 1977, means these notes circulated alongside HKD with near-universal acceptance in both directions — a practical reality that shaped demand for high-denomination pataca notes throughout this period.