Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
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!
50 Yuan
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central oval vignette of the Liuhe Pagoda (Six Harmonies Pagoda) in Hangzhou, set against a river landscape with surrounding foliage, executed in fine intaglio engraving. Denomination numeral '50' appears in each corner within ornate cartouches against a dark blue guilloche background. The printer's imprint 'AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY' is inscribed at the foot of the note, with signature lines for General Manager and Governor flanking the central vignette. |
| 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.