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50 000 Customs Gold Units
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1948 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of Sun Yat-sen set within an oval vignette at centre, printed in red on a guilloche underprint. The issuer name 中央銀行 (Central Bank of China) appears across the top, with the denomination 關金伍萬圓 rendered in a decorative cartouche below the portrait. Denomination numerals 伍萬 repeat in the corners, and a serial number appears both above and below the central design. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA FIFTY THOUSAND CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS 50000 |
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| Comments |
The Customs Gold Unit was an accounting currency introduced in 1930 to stabilize tariff revenues against silver fluctuation, but by 1948 it had been weaponized as an emergency circulating medium during the final hyperinflationary collapse of Nationalist finances. Denominations escalated with brutal speed — the 50,000 CGU note arrived as the Gold Yuan reform was already being prepared to replace the entire CGU system, meaning many of these notes had an effective lifespan measured in weeks.
Printed in-house by the Central Bank's own works rather than contracted abroad, a decision driven by wartime disruption to foreign printing relationships rather than any capacity advantage.