200 Dollars Deutsch-Asiatische Bank

The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was a Hamburg-based institution with branches across East Asia, and this 1914 issue belongs to one of the more peculiar episodes in colonial monetary history. When war broke out in August 1914, German-held Tsingtau (Qingdao) — where the bank maintained a key branch — was almost immediately blockaded by Japanese and British forces. Notes already printed by Giesecke & Devrient in Leipzig may never have reached their intended territory before the garrison fell in November 1914.

The $200 denomination is among the rarest of the series. Unissued survivors are the rule, not the exception.