Catalog
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| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse, printed entirely in red-orange, is dominated by a central guilloche medallion incorporating the Chinese character 角 (Jiao), flanked by symmetrical ornamental scrollwork. The denomination numeral "20" appears in each of the four corners, with the English legend "THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA" set across the top margin. The year "1949" is printed at the bottom center within a decorative panel. |
| Reverse lettering | THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA 貳 角 TWENTY CENTS 1949 |
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| Comments |
The Central Bank of China's 1949 small-denomination issues were products of institutional collapse. By the time these notes were printed, the Nationalist government had already burned through the Gold Yuan reform of 1948 — one of the most catastrophic currency failures of the twentieth century — and was issuing Silver Yuan notes as a final attempt to stabilize what could not be stabilized. This 2 Jiao sits in that terminal phase, when the bank's physical operations were fragmenting across multiple cities as Communist forces advanced.
Pick 435 is among the less frequently encountered pieces from the final Nationalist issues, partly because the regime's collapse compressed actual circulation time to weeks in many regions.