5 Yuan Central Bank of China

The Central Bank of China Printing Works had been producing notes domestically since the early 1930s, reducing dependence on foreign printers like American Bank Note Company and Waterlow & Sons that had dominated earlier issues. By 1937, that capability was about to be tested severely — the Second Sino-Japanese War began that same year, and the Central Bank was forced into a series of increasingly chaotic relocations, eventually moving operations to Chongqing as Japanese forces took Shanghai and Nanjing.

Notes of this series were printed in substantial quantities and remained in circulation well into the wartime inflation period, when their face value became increasingly nominal.