50 Cents

The Federal Reserve Bank of China was a Japanese-sponsored institution established in 1938 to manage currency in the occupied territories of northern China. It was not a successor to any Republican-era central bank — it was a tool of the occupation, created to displace Nationalist currency and extract economic control from areas under Japanese military administration.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Peking operated under Japanese oversight during this period. Notes from the 1938 inaugural series, including this 50 Cents, entered circulation almost immediately after the bank's March founding.