5 Cents

The Central Reserve Bank of China was a puppet institution established in March 1941 under the Wang Jingwei collaborationist regime in Japanese-occupied Nanjing — which creates an immediate problem with a 1940 date, as the bank did not formally begin operations until the following year. Notes dated 1940 in this series are understood to reflect the intended establishment date rather than actual issue, a common practice in provisional currency planning of this period.

Watson Printing Company was a Shanghai-based firm, one of several local printers pressed into service for occupation-era currency production after access to international security printers was severed by wartime conditions.