50 Yuan Central Bank of China

The 1936 50 Yuan series was issued in the years immediately before the Second Sino-Japanese War forced the Nationalist government into a prolonged westward retreat. Waterlow & Sons, then at the height of their contract printing work for governments across Asia and Africa, produced a technically accomplished note — but the political ground was already shifting. The fabi currency reform of 1935 had only just consolidated note issuance under four government-controlled banks, and this series was part of that newly centralized structure.

Hyperinflation during the war years and afterward rendered high-denomination fabi notes increasingly worthless in practice. Surviving examples in collectible condition are far more common than the wartime monetary history might suggest, largely because significant quantities were printed but never entered active circulation before the collapse.