5 Yuan Farmer's Bank of Chung-Chou, back proof

The Farmer's Bank of Chung-Chou (中州農民銀行) was a Communist-controlled regional bank operating in the Central Plains Liberation Area during the final phase of the Chinese Civil War. By 1948, the People's Liberation Army held most of Henan, and this bank was issuing currency to stabilize commerce in territory wrested from Nationalist control — notes circulating in parallel with, and in direct competition against, KMT-issued currency that was itself collapsing under hyperinflation.

The "s" suffix in the Pick reference denotes a specimen or proof. Back proofs from short-lived regional Communist banks of this period are considerably rarer than issued notes; most printing records were not systematically preserved.