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20 Cents Kwangtung Provincial Bank
| Issuer | The Provincial Bank of Kwang Tung Province |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The left half of the obverse is occupied by a large intaglio-engraved vignette of a stone arched bridge set in a riverside landscape with trees and figures, enclosed within an ornate arch-shaped frame with scrollwork corners. To the right, the bank title in Chinese characters (廣東省銀行省立紙幣) is printed at the top, below which a red serial number appears, followed by a central guilloche panel bearing the denomination characters 貳角 (Twenty Cents) in bold. Two red seal impressions appear at the lower centre, and the denomination 貳角 is repeated in the left and right vertical margins alongside additional Chinese text. The bottom margin carries the Chinese inscription 中華民國十一年印 (Printed in the 11th Year of the Republic of China). |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is executed entirely in blue and red guilloche letterpress, with an elaborate scalloped outer border enclosing dense lathe-work underprint in red and blue. A curved banner at the top bears the English inscription THE PROVINCIAL BANK OF KWANG TUNG PROVINCE, centred above the promise text PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND and the denomination TWENTY CENTS in bold serif letters. The numeral 20 appears in large ornate form at both left and right within the guilloche field, with a smaller 20 medallion at the centre top. A rectangular cartouche at the lower centre carries the place and date of issue CANTON, JANUARY 1ST, 1922, and the imprint AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY is printed in small letters along the bottom margin. |
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| Comments |
The Provincial Bank of Kwang Tung Province was one of several regional institutions that operated with considerable autonomy during the warlord period, issuing its own currency largely independent of Peking's nominal authority. Kwangtung's financial infrastructure in this period was shaped more by the demands of Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou government and its military expenditures than by any orthodox central banking policy.
American Bank Note Company supplied engraved notes to dozens of Chinese provincial and commercial banks during this period — the consistent quality of ABNCo work meant that even minor regional issues carried a technical sophistication the issuing institutions could not have produced domestically. The small denomination suggests heavy everyday use, and survivors in any presentable state are correspondingly harder to find.