Catalog
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Gold Yuan (1948-1949) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central vignette of Sun Yat-sen in three-quarter portrait, rendered in intaglio against an intricate guilloche underprint in purple and red tones. Denomination panels in Chinese characters appear at each corner, flanked by floral rosette cartouches, with two red seal impressions on either side of the portrait. The bank title 中央銀行 runs along the top in bold Chinese characters. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行銀央中 圓拾伍 (Translation: Central Bank of China Fifty Yuan) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
This note belongs to the massive wartime and immediate postwar printing program the Central Bank of China contracted to American Bank Note Company as Japanese occupation had disrupted or eliminated domestic printing capacity. By 1945, the fabi — China's legal tender currency — was already deep into an inflationary spiral that would accelerate catastrophically through 1948 and into the gold yuan fiasco.
The P#392 series circulated into an economy where price levels were doubling faster than new notes could reach the public. Fifty yuan, a meaningful denomination in the late 1930s, bought almost nothing by the time most of these notes actually entered circulation.