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250 Customs Gold Units
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1930 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Upper half carries an intaglio vignette of the Central Bank of China building in Shanghai, a multi-storey neoclassical structure with a prominent tower, surmounted by the bank's name in an arched cartouche reading THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA, with the promise text PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT ITS OFFICE HERE on a ribbon below the building. The lower half centres on a large numeral 250 within an elaborate guilloche underprint, with the denomination TWO HUNDRED FIFTY CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS inscribed beneath; two manuscript signatures appear at bottom left and right above their respective titles, with SHANGHAI, 1930 in a tablet and AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY at the very foot. |
| Reverse lettering | THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT ITS OFFICE HERE TWO HUNDRED FIFTY CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS SHANGHAI, 1930 AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY |
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| Comments |
The Customs Gold Unit was a notional accounting currency introduced by the Nationalist government in 1930 specifically to stabilize tariff revenues, which had been collected in silver taels and were therefore vulnerable to exchange rate volatility. The CGU was pegged to the U.S. dollar at a fixed rate, insulating customs receipts from the chronic instability of Chinese silver markets.
American Bank Note Company printed the series under contract — a longstanding arrangement that gave Chinese government paper much of its technical credibility abroad during this period. The 250-unit denomination is among the less commonly encountered values in the CGU series.