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5 Dollars
| Issuer | Imperial Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1898 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Dollars |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE IMPERIAL BANK OF CHINA FIVE DOLLARS CANTON CURRENCY Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand at its Office in CANTON Value received. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Canton, 22nd January 1898 ACTING CHIEF MANAGER No. |
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| Variants | P#A37a - Issued note P#A37r - Remainder perforated: CANCELLED |
| Comments |
The Imperial Bank of China was established in 1897 as China's first government-chartered modern bank, a direct product of the post-Sino-Japanese War reform push under the Qing court. Its founding capital was partly foreign, and its management was split between a British chief inspector and Chinese directors — an arrangement that generated persistent institutional friction.
Bradbury, Wilkinson produced the plates in London, which was standard for Chinese government and quasi-government paper of the period, as no domestic security printing capacity yet existed at the required technical level. The bank's issuing life was short; it effectively collapsed by 1911, and surviving notes from the 1898 series are genuinely scarce across all denominations.