25 Yuan Bank of Chinan

The Bank of Chinan (齊南銀行) was a regional Communist-controlled institution operating in Shandong province during the final years of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Its notes circulated in liberated zones administered by the Shandong-Jiangsu branch of the Communist Party apparatus — areas where Nationalist currency was actively rejected and Japanese military yen forbidden by local decree.

The 25 yuan denomination is an odd one, almost never adopted by mainstream Chinese banking, and its appearance here likely reflects wartime price distortions rather than any standard monetary planning. By 1945, inflation across all Chinese currency zones — Nationalist, Communist, and puppet alike — had made unconventional denominations a practical necessity rather than a policy choice.