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5 Jiao / 50 Cents
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1948 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Security Banknote Company (SBNC), Philadelphia, United States (?-date) |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of Chiang Kai-shek in military uniform occupies the right portion of the note within an oval frame, set against a finely engraved guilloche background. The denomination 伍角 appears in large Chinese characters at centre-left, with an ornate oval underprint vignette to its left. The bank title 中央銀行 is printed in Chinese characters across the top, with red serial numbers and prefix block letters at upper left and upper right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A central intaglio vignette presents two sailing junks navigating a narrow river gorge flanked by steep, heavily wooded cliffs, rendered in fine line engraving. The denomination numeral 50 appears in each corner within elaborate guilloche cartouches, and the words FIFTY and CENTS are printed to either side of the central vignette. Two manuscript facsimile signatures of the General Manager and Governor appear below the vignette, with the printer's imprint SECURITY BANKNOTE COMPANY at the bottom margin and the year 1948 below the central scene. |
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| Comments |
By mid-1948 the Central Bank of China was printing currency at a pace the domestic presses could not sustain. SBNC in Philadelphia was one of several American contractors drawn into that frantic production run, though the precise contract dates remain unclear — hence the query in the catalog record. The engagement was short-lived regardless; the gold yuan reform of August 1948 swept most of the fa bi series into obsolescence within weeks of issue.
Hyperinflation had already made small-denomination notes economically meaningless before many reached the counter. Unissued remainders from American-printed runs are consequently more common in collections than genuinely circulated examples.