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20 Cents Kwangtung Provincial Bank
| Issuer | Kwangtung Provincial Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1935 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of Dr. Sun Yat-sen at right, rendered in intaglio, with Chinese text arranged in vertical columns reading from right to left across the face. Guilloche underprint frames the design, with the denomination and bank name inscribed in Chinese characters. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central intaglio vignette of two Chinese junks under full sail on a harbour, with additional vessels visible in the background against a mountainous shoreline. Denomination numeral '20' appears in each corner within elaborate guilloche rosettes, with vertical micro-numeral panels '20 20' on both lateral borders. The bank name arches across the top in a scrolled banner, and the promise-to-pay legend with denomination is set in ornamental lettering at the bottom centre. |
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| Comments |
The Kwangtung Provincial Bank operated under the Guangdong provincial government, which through much of the early 1930s maintained a degree of financial autonomy from the Nationalist central government in Nanjing — an autonomy that made institutions like this one politically as well as economically significant. By 1935, that independence was narrowing fast, and the provincial bank's days as a genuinely autonomous issuer were numbered.
ABNC's involvement was typical of Chinese provincial banking in this period — domestic printing capacity for secure currency was limited, and American Bank Note held contracts across multiple competing Chinese authorities simultaneously.