2 Yuan Central Bank of China

Thomas De La Rue printed this note in London during a period of acute logistical difficulty — by 1941, wartime shipping lanes made delivering banknotes from Britain to Nationalist-controlled China genuinely hazardous, and a significant proportion of printed currency stock was lost or delayed in transit. The Central Bank of China was simultaneously sourcing notes from multiple foreign printers, partly as a hedge against exactly this kind of supply disruption.

The 1941 issues also coincided with accelerating inflation driven by Japanese military pressure and the costs of sustained warfare, meaning notes of this denomination entered circulation into an economy already losing confidence in paper currency at low face values.