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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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| Size | 185 × 105 mm |
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| Obverse description | Green decorative border with floral and geometric guilloche over a yellow underprint. The issuer name 元亨利 appears in large red brush-script characters at centre, with the bank's full title in smaller characters along the upper margin. The denomination text and serial number fields are rendered in red letterpress, with date fields (民國年月日) arranged vertically at left and a serial reference column at right. |
|---|---|
| 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 |
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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.