50 Dollars

Waterlow and Sons held the HSBC printing contract for decades, and the long dating range on this series — spanning the tail end of the silver standard era, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, and the postwar resumption of normal banking — means individual notes within the type can carry wildly different historical weight depending on their specific date. Notes dated 1941 were still in circulation when Japanese forces took Hong Kong on Christmas Day; the occupying authorities initially allowed Hong Kong dollars to remain in use before eventually mandating exchange for military yen at a punishing rate.

Waterlow-produced notes from this period occasionally show plate wear on later printings, worth examining under raking light.