5 Cents

The Bank of Manchuria was a Sino-foreign joint venture — nominally Chinese but operating with significant Japanese financial backing during a period when Manchuria was effectively contested territory between Chinese warlord administrations and expanding Japanese commercial interests. A 5-cent note from this institution in 1923 speaks to the fragmented, hyperlocal nature of currency in northeastern China at the time, where regional banks routinely issued small denominations that national institutions ignored.

Two-signature authentication on notes of this denomination was not universal among regional Chinese banks of the period, making the Liu/Liang signing format a minor point of interest for series collectors tracking issue controls.