2000 Yuan Bank of Central China

The Bank of Central China (中州农民银行 / 中州银行) was a Communist Party regional bank operating in the Zhongyuan (Central Plains) liberated zone during the final phase of the civil war. By 1948, inflation across Nationalist-controlled territory had become catastrophic, and even Communist regional currencies were being issued in high denominations simply to keep pace with wartime economic dislocation.

The S-prefix Pick number places this firmly in the regional and provisional issues category — not a central government note, but one of several competing regional currencies that were eventually consolidated when the People's Bank of China absorbed these institutions following the Communist victory in 1949.