100 Yuan Bank of Communications

The Bank of Communications 100 Yuan series of 1942 was issued during one of the most chaotic periods of Chinese monetary history — the Nationalist government was haemorrhaging reserves while simultaneously financing a war against Japan, and inflation was beginning the trajectory that would eventually destroy the fabi currency entirely. By 1942, face values that had seemed substantial three years earlier were rapidly losing purchasing power in free China.

Dah Tung Book Co. in Hong Kong is an unusual printer credit for this date. Hong Kong had fallen to Japanese forces in December 1941, meaning any Hong Kong-printed notes bearing a 1942 date were almost certainly produced before the colony's fall or represent a cataloguing approximation worth scrutiny.