5 Yuan Tung Pei Bank of China

The Tung Pei Bank of China — the Northeast Bank — was established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1945 to assert financial control over Manchuria following the Soviet expulsion of Japanese forces. This 1946 five yuan note belongs to the bank's earliest operational period, when Communist and Nationalist forces were still actively contesting the northeast and monetary authority was inseparable from military geography. The bank issued notes precisely to displace Japanese puppet currency and Nationalist-backed instruments from circulation.

Pick S3737 falls within a series where genuine examples are frequently confused with later reproductions — the northeast region's chaotic political turnover between 1945 and 1948 generated significant quantities of forgeries from multiple competing factions.