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5 Yuan / Dollars Canton
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#444 |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行銀央中 券元銀 圓伍 廣 州 年八十三國民華中 (Translation: Central Bank of China Silver Yuan Note Five Yuan Guangzhou Year 38 of the Chinese Republic) |
| Reverse description | Central vignette of a Chinese junk under sail, enclosed within a circular guilloche frame. The denomination is repeated in large block letters to either side, and the issuer's promise-to-pay clause appears in English along the upper border. The place name CANTON and the date 1949 are printed below the central vignette, with the printer's imprint at the foot. |
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| Comments |
By the time this note was issued in 1949, the Central Bank of China was in its death throes. Hyperinflation had already destroyed the gold yuan introduced just the previous year — itself an emergency replacement for the collapsed fabi — and the Nationalist government was hemorrhaging territory to Communist forces. Notes denominated in single digits were functionally meaningless within weeks of printing.
Chung Hwa Book Co. was a Shanghai commercial printer pressed repeatedly into currency production as the established facilities struggled to keep pace with demand. The Canton designation locates the note within a regional series issued as the Nationalists attempted to maintain some semblance of monetary administration in southern China ahead of their eventual retreat to Taiwan.