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2000 Customs Gold Units

Issuer Central Bank of China
Year 1947
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Currency Customs Gold Unit (1930-1948)
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Obverse description Intaglio portrait of Sun Yat-sen in an oval vignette at centre, set against a fine guilloche underprint in blue. The denomination 貳仟圓 appears within an ornate red and blue rosette below the portrait, flanked by corner panels bearing the value in Chinese characters. Two red official seals are applied at the lower portion, with the serial number printed twice in red above and below the central design.
Obverse lettering 行銀央中 關 金 貳 仟 圓 印年六十三國民華中 司公鈔印羅納德
(Translation: Central Bank of China Two Thousand Customs Gold Units Printed in the 36th year of the Republic of China Thomas De La Rue & Company Limited London)
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Comments

The Customs Gold Unit was a specialized fiscal instrument introduced in 1930 to stabilize tariff collection against exchange rate volatility — duties were assessed in CGUs rather than the depreciating fiat currency of the moment. By 1947, the underlying logic had collapsed entirely. Hyperinflation was dismantling the Nationalist financial system faster than new denominations could be printed, and the CGU itself had ceased to function as any kind of stable unit of account.

De La Rue produced this note in London, an arrangement that continued even as the Kuomintang government's hold on the mainland deteriorated. The 2000 CGU denomination is among the higher values in the late wartime and postwar CGU series, reflecting just how far the purchasing power of earlier units had eroded.

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