5 Jiao / 50 Cents Bank of China

The Bank of China reorganized its note-issuing operations significantly in the early 1920s, and this 50 Cent fractional note belongs to a period when Waterlow & Sons in London were producing a substantial portion of Chinese banking paper. Waterlow had deep experience with Chinese issuers by this point, having worked with several competing institutions across the republic period.

Fractional notes in this denomination circulated hard in coastal commercial centers, where small-denomination paper was often preferred over the worn, clipped subsidiary coinage of the period. Attrition rates were correspondingly high, and heavily circulated survivors are far more common than clean ones.