50 Yuan Central Bank of China

The Central Bank of China's 1940 series was issued under conditions of active wartime displacement — the Nationalist government had retreated to Chungking following the fall of Nanking in 1937, and the entire banking and printing infrastructure had been relocated inland accordingly. Chung Hwa Book Company, originally a Shanghai publisher and printer, was among the firms that moved operations westward to sustain note production. Printing quality from this period reflects the constraints of that relocation.

Wartime inflation was already accelerating badly by 1940, and the 50 Yuan denomination, once significant, was losing purchasing power rapidly as the decade progressed. Most circulated hard and were discarded.