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10 Dollars
| Issuer | Imperial Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1898 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#A54 |
| Obverse description | Red on cream underprint with overall guilloche border. Two confronted dragons flank a central shield vignette at upper centre, below which large Chinese characters state the denomination 伍拾圓. Vertical-format layout with vertical Chinese text columns on both sides and yin-yang roundels at lower left and right; cancelled remainder perforations visible. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#A54a - Issued note P#A54r - Remainder perforated: CANCELLED |
| Comments |
The Imperial Bank of China was established by imperial edict in 1897 as the country's first modern joint-stock bank with semi-official status — a hybrid institution designed to compete with foreign banks that had long dominated Chinese commercial finance. This note dates to its inaugural year of note issuance, making it among the earliest paper money the bank produced. Bradbury, Wilkinson printed the series in London, a common arrangement for Chinese institutions of the period that lacked domestic security printing infrastructure capable of meeting anti-counterfeiting standards.
The bank's influence was short-lived. It lost its privileged position after the Boxer Uprising and was eventually absorbed into reorganized state banking structures. Early issues like this one had limited circulation time before institutional upheaval curtailed distribution.