50 Yuan Central Bank of China

This note was issued in the final year of the Second Sino-Japanese War, when the Central Bank of China was printing currency at a pace it could not sustain. By 1945, wartime spending had already set inflation on a trajectory that would become catastrophic within three years — the 50 Yuan denomination, significant in 1940, was losing practical meaning fast.

The Central Engraving and Printing Plant had been relocated and reconstituted during the war years, its output shaped as much by material shortages as by design intentions. Notes from this period frequently show uneven ink distribution and variable paper quality as a result.