2000 Yuan Central Bank of China

By 1947, the Central Bank of China was issuing notes in denominations that would have been unthinkable five years earlier. Hyperinflation driven by wartime military expenditure and postwar Nationalist-Communist conflict had rendered lower denominations functionally useless, forcing the bank to accelerate production dramatically. The Printing Works could not keep pace with demand, and multiple facilities — including contracted foreign printers for other series — were operating simultaneously.

The P#383 belongs to the inflationary cascade that preceded the 1948 monetary reform, when the gold yuan was introduced at a conversion rate of 3,000,000 old yuan to one gold yuan. That figure alone explains why this note circulated hard and briefly.