50 Yuan Bank of Pei Hai

The Bank of Pei Hai was the regional bank of the Shandong-Jiangsu border area controlled by the Chinese Communist Party during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the civil war period that followed. Its notes circulated in liberated zones where Nationalist currency was actively suppressed — holding or spending Guomindang fabi in CCP-controlled territory carried real risk by the mid-1940s, which drove acceptance of Pei Hai notes even among populations that might otherwise have resisted them.

1945 was a transitional year: Japan's surrender in August threw currency conditions across occupied and semi-occupied China into sudden chaos, and Pei Hai issues from that year were produced under conditions of both military pressure and rapid institutional expansion. Production quality varies considerably across the series.