100 Yuan Central Bank of China

By 1944, the Central Bank of China's currency was in serious trouble. Wartime inflation driven by Japanese occupation, Nationalist government deficit financing, and the near-total disruption of the Chinese economy had begun the spiral that would render hundred-yuan denominations essentially transactional pocket change within a few years. That De La Rue in London was still producing notes for the Chungking government at this stage reflects both the Nationalist reliance on foreign printing infrastructure and the difficulty of securing adequate domestic press capacity under wartime conditions.

The P#256 series is relatively common in collector holdings, suggesting substantial print runs reached circulation before the postwar hyperinflationary collapse made the entire denomination obsolete.