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500 Dollars
| Issuer | Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#164 |
| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown and blue tones with an elaborate border of fine guilloche work. At centre, the bank's heraldic arms vignette is flanked by two oval vignettes — a rural agricultural scene with a farmer and ox at left, and a harbour or coastal landscape at right. The bank's name in bold letterpress appears across the upper portion, with the denomination FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS inscribed below the central device, and the place and date of issue HONGKONG, 1st January, 1909 beneath the promise-to-pay clause. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 香港上海滙豐銀行 HONGKONG & SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION Promise to pay the Bearer on demand at its Office here FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS the equivalent in the Currency of the Colony, Value received. HONGKONG, 1st January, 1909. By Order of the BOARD of DIRECTORS CHIEF ACCOUNTANT CHIEF MANAGER FIVE HUNDRED 伍百圓 港幣 |
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| Comments |
The Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation's note-issuing history in this period is defined partly by the practical difficulties of supplying currency to a trading hub reliant on distant print runs. Waterlow & Sons had a long working relationship with HSBC for its Hong Kong currency, and the 1919 dating places this note in the immediate post-war period when commercial confidence was returning sharply to Asia-Pacific trade routes.
At this denomination — the highest in regular circulation for the bank — surviving examples are genuinely rare. High-value notes tend to pass through fewer hands, but the ones that did circulate were used hard by merchants, and many were retired and pulped during subsequent currency reviews in the 1920s.