100 Yuan Bank of Shansi, Chahar, & Hopei

The Bank of Shansi, Chahar & Hopei was a communist-controlled regional bank operating under the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region government — one of several guerrilla base area administrations that issued their own currency during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the concurrent civil war against the Nationalists. Notes like this 1945 issue circulated in a zone that had been contested, occupied, and partially liberated over the preceding eight years, and the currency was as much a political instrument as an economic one: establishing and enforcing a monetary boundary against both Japanese military scrip and Nationalist fabi.

By 1945, Japanese control in much of Hebei and Chahar was collapsing, and border region currencies were aggressively expanded to fill the vacuum. High-denomination notes from this period tend to reflect inflationary pressures rather than genuine purchasing parity.