5 Cents Kwangtung Provincial Bank

Kwangtung Provincial Bank issued this fractional note in 1949 as the Nationalist financial system was collapsing under hyperinflation — the People's Liberation Army took Guangzhou in October of that year, ending the bank's operations entirely. Notes of this series had almost no functional lifespan, issued into a currency environment where public confidence had already evaporated.

The extreme small denomination in cents, at a moment when millions of yuan could not buy a meal, tells you everything about the monetary disorder of those final months.