The Bank of Central China was a Communist Party-controlled institution established in 1948 to serve the Liberated Areas of central China as civil war against the Nationalists accelerated toward its conclusion. It was not a national bank — it operated regionally, and its notes competed directly with Nationalist currency in contested territory, a deliberate instrument of economic destabilization as much as a functional medium of exchange.
The S-prefix in the Pick reference places this squarely in the regional and provisional issues section — a classification that understates how politically significant these notes were in the final phase of the civil war.
The Bank of Central China was a Communist Party-controlled institution established in 1948 to serve the Liberated Areas of central China as civil war against the Nationalists accelerated toward its conclusion. It was not a national bank — it operated regionally, and its notes competed directly with Nationalist currency in contested territory, a deliberate instrument of economic destabilization as much as a functional medium of exchange.
The S-prefix in the Pick reference places this squarely in the regional and provisional issues section — a classification that understates how politically significant these notes were in the final phase of the civil war.