2000 Yuan Bank of Central China

The Bank of Central China (中州农民银行 / 中州银行) was a communist-controlled regional issuer operating in the Central Plains liberated zones during the final phase of the civil war. By 1948, the PLA had consolidated enough territory in Henan, Hubei, and surrounding provinces to require high-denomination notes simply to keep pace with the hyperinflationary collapse of Nationalist-issued currency, which was destroying purchasing power faster than wages could be adjusted.

The 2000 Yuan denomination places this note at the extreme end of the wartime emergency issues — a denomination that would have been unthinkable just three years earlier. Regional communist bank notes from this period were withdrawn and consolidated into the new Renminbi system after the People's Bank of China was formally established in December 1948.