Standard Chartered has issued Hong Kong dollars continuously since 1862, making it one of only three commercial banks still authorized to do so — an arrangement unique among major financial centers globally. The 2003 series marked Standard Chartered's shift to Hong Kong Note Printing Limited, the Shenzhen-adjacent facility majority-owned by the People's Bank of China, a commercially and politically pointed choice for a British-origin bank operating in post-handover Hong Kong.
P#291 notes from this year occasionally show minor ink set-off on the reverse — a known characteristic of the early HKNPL print runs for this series, worth checking on any example before cataloguing condition.
Standard Chartered has issued Hong Kong dollars continuously since 1862, making it one of only three commercial banks still authorized to do so — an arrangement unique among major financial centers globally. The 2003 series marked Standard Chartered's shift to Hong Kong Note Printing Limited, the Shenzhen-adjacent facility majority-owned by the People's Bank of China, a commercially and politically pointed choice for a British-origin bank operating in post-handover Hong Kong.
P#291 notes from this year occasionally show minor ink set-off on the reverse — a known characteristic of the early HKNPL print runs for this series, worth checking on any example before cataloguing condition.