50 Yuan Bank of Pei Hai

The Bank of Pei Hai was a Communist-administered regional bank operating in the Shandong-Jiaodong border base area, and its notes circulated in direct competition with both Japanese military scrip and Nationalist currency during the final years of the war. The 1945 issues were part of a deliberate economic strategy — flooding liberated zones with stable local currency to displace occupation money and undermine Nationalist financial authority simultaneously.

Pei Hai notes from this period are notoriously variable in print quality, reflecting decentralized production under wartime conditions. The S-prefix in the Pick reference places it among regional Chinese issues, and survivors tend to show hard use.