100 Yuan - Hell Bank Note

Hell bank notes are not currency in any legal or historical sense — they are ceremonial paper produced for burning at Chinese funerals and ancestral rites, intended to transfer wealth to the deceased in the afterlife. The "Bank of Hades" imprint is a commercial fiction; these sheets are manufactured by specialist paper goods factories, primarily in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan, and sold through temple supply shops. The 1999 date on this example almost certainly reflects a print run tied to Qingming or Hungry Ghost Festival restocking cycles rather than any issuing authority decision.

Collectors occasionally acquire these as novelty items, but they hold no place in mainstream notaphily.