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2 Cents - The Sun Co. Ltd. Shanghai
| Issuer | The Sun Co. (S'Hai) Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1933-1941 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 98 x 54 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Purple letterpress on cream paper with guilloche border and numeral-2 corner medallions. The issuer name THE SUN CO. (S'HAI) LTD. and CREDIT COUPON are printed at the top, above a central lozenge-shaped guilloche underprint enclosing a large ornate numeral 2. TWO CENTS panels appear in rectangular frames at left and right. A serial number in black prefix letter and red numerals is printed at the lower centre. |
| Reverse lettering | 2 THE SUN CO. (S'HAI) LTD. CREDIT COUPON TWO CENTS 2 TWO CENTS |
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| Comments |
The Sun Company was a major department store operation headquartered on Nanjing Road, and these small-denomination scrip notes were issued for use within the store's own commercial ecosystem — essentially private cash substitutes during a period when small change in Shanghai was chronically scarce. The 1930s saw dozens of Shanghai merchants and businesses issuing similar fractional scrip, partly from practical necessity and partly because the city's monetary situation was genuinely chaotic, with competing currencies from Japanese military authorities, the Nationalist government, and foreign concession banks all circulating simultaneously.
The date range spans the Japanese occupation of the International Settlement after December 1941, raising real questions about how long these notes actually remained in use after the store's commercial autonomy was effectively curtailed.