5 Taels

The Imperial Bank of China was established in 1897 as China's first government-chartered modern bank, with a mandate to issue national currency and manage foreign loans. This note dates to just its second year of operation — an institution still finding its footing within a Qing financial system that had no real precedent for centralized paper issue.

Bradbury, Wilkinson engraved and printed the series in London, a common arrangement for newly formed colonial and semi-colonial banks lacking domestic intaglio capacity. The tael denomination is significant: the tael was a weight-based silver unit, not a standardized coin, and its value varied by region and trade custom — making paper notes denominated in taels inherently awkward instruments for national circulation.

Pick lists this as A41, indicating provisional or early catalogue status, reflecting how incompletely documented the early Imperial Bank issues remain.