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5 Jiao / 50 Cents Central Bank of China
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1931 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Left-center vignette of the Confucius Temple (Dacheng Hall) rendered in fine intaglio engraving, with a detailed two-tiered traditional Chinese roof, stone balustrades, and a broad stairway. To the right, a large quatrefoil guilloche medallion carries the denomination characters 伍角 in bold relief. The four corners bear the denomination 伍角 in Chinese script, with two red seal stamps positioned at lower right, and the serial number printed in red above the vignette. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is executed in brown and dark blue on a light ground, dominated by an elaborate guilloche underprint with two large rosette medallions flanking the central panel. The center carries the large numeral '50' over a fine lathe-work background, with 'FIFTY CENTS' in a bold cartouche below. The issuer title 'THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA' appears in an arched panel at top, and two manuscript signatures above their respective titles occupy the lower center, with the printer's imprint at the foot. |
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| Comments |
The Central Bank of China's 1931 fractional issues emerged from a period when the Nationalist government in Nanjing was attempting to consolidate monetary authority over a country still riddled with competing provincial currencies and foreign bank notes. The 5 Jiao sat at an awkward denomination — large enough to matter in daily transactions, small enough to circulate hard and return rarely to a bank counter.
Chung Hwa Book Co. was primarily a publisher and educational printing house that had diversified into security printing, and by the early 1930s held several government note contracts alongside competitors like the Commercial Press. Their intaglio work on this series is competent but noticeably less refined than contemporaneous issues produced by Waterlow or American Bank Note.
Pick 205 is among the more frequently encountered survivors from this short-lived fractional series, suggesting reasonably high print runs before the 1935 currency reform effectively obsoleted subsidiary paper issues of this type.