Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Customs Gold Units
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Customs Gold Unit (1930-1948) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed vertically in blue intaglio and carries a large architectural vignette of the Central Bank of China's Shanghai headquarters, a multi-storey neoclassical building with a prominent clock tower, rendered in fine line engraving. Below the building vignette the promise-to-pay text is set within a scrollwork panel, beneath which a large guilloche numeral '500' is flanked by ornate rosettes with the denomination 'FIVE HUNDRED CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS' in a banner; two facsimile signatures of the General Manager and Assistant General Manager appear above the imprint line 'SHANGHAI, 1947' and 'AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY' at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND AT ITS OFFICE HERE FIVE HUNDRED CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS SHANGHAI, 1947 AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Customs Gold Unit was introduced in 1930 as a notional accounting currency pegged to gold, used specifically to denominate import duties — it was never intended as everyday circulating money. By 1947, when this note was printed, that fiction had long collapsed. The CGU had been dragged into general circulation as hyperinflation destroyed the Fabi and the government scrambled for any denomination that looked stable.
American Bank Note Company continued supplying the Nationalist government through the late 1940s even as the political situation deteriorated rapidly. This 500-unit note was obsolete almost from the moment it arrived in China.