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5 Tiao Yuan Heng Li Empire private bank issue
| Issuer | Yuan Heng Li (元亨利) Private Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1913 |
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| Currency | Yuan (1912-1949) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 歷巴東鄉北鄉李官莊 元亨利 認票不認人 憑票發兌銅元參串文 字第號 民國年月日 票 計銅元壹百四十七枚 |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green on plain paper stock. The issuer name 元亨利 is set within a rectangular cartouche at the top centre. A large circular vignette occupies the upper half, enclosing a bold stylised rendering of the character 參 formed by repetition of smaller characters, serving as an anti-counterfeiting device. Flanking vertical panels carry cautionary legends. The lower half contains a detailed vignette of a traditional Chinese courtyard building with surrounding trees. The Western numeral 3 appears in ornamental roundels at each lower corner. |
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| Comments |
Yuan Heng Li was one of the so-called "qianzhuang" — traditional Chinese private money shops operating in the interstices of the formal banking system. These institutions issued their own notes backed by nothing more than local reputation and whatever silver reserves they chose to maintain, entirely outside the nominal regulatory reach of the newly established Republic. The 1913 date places this note in the chaotic transitional year immediately following the Xinhai Revolution, when the Qing monetary framework had collapsed but the Republic's banking infrastructure had not yet filled the gap.
Survival rate for qianzhuang notes of this period is extremely low. Most were redeemed and destroyed by the issuing house itself, and any institution that failed — as enormous numbers did between 1912 and 1916 — left its outstanding notes worthless and usually discarded.