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50 Mei Bank of China
| Issuer | Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Oval vignette at left enclosing a riverside townscape with buildings and a bridge. The denomination 銅元伍拾枚 is set within an elaborate floral and scrollwork cartouche occupying the right half of the note. The entire field is framed by a dense guilloche border with ornamental corner rosettes, printed in red on a light ground. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 中國銀行 銅元 伍拾枚 憑票即付 當地通用 中華民國八年三月 (Translation: Bank of China / Copper Yuan / Fifty Mei / Payable on demand / Local circulation / March, 8th year of the Republic of China [1919]) |
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| Comments |
The Bank of China's 1919 issues occupy an awkward moment in the institution's history — reorganized under the Republic just seven years earlier, the bank was still negotiating its identity between a state-controlled central bank and a commercial institution, a tension that would remain unresolved for decades. The "Mei" unit itself deserves attention: it was a copper subsidiary denomination used in specific regional markets, not a nationally circulating currency, which sharply limits where these notes actually changed hands.
Pick 57 is among the scarcer entries in the 1919 BOC copper series. Regional redemption practices and the general instability of small-denomination paper in early Republican China meant attrition rates were high.