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500 Dollars HSBC
| Issuer | The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1978-1983 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1863-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The bank name in English runs across the top in bold letterpress. At right, the HSBC heraldic lion (known as the Stitt lion) accompanies the Arabic numeral 500, while a detailed architectural vignette of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's principal office building occupies the left portion of the design. The outer margins are bordered with fine guilloche anti-counterfeiting patterns. |
| Reverse lettering | The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 500 |
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| Comments |
Bradbury Wilkinson produced this note at their New Malden works during a period when Hong Kong's three-bank issuing arrangement was under periodic scrutiny — the colony's government had considered centralizing note issuance more than once, and never quite followed through. HSBC's $500 remained the highest practical denomination in everyday commercial use through this period, the $1,000 note existing but rarely seen outside banking circles.
Watermark-only security reflects the era's assumptions about forgery risk in Hong Kong — magnetic ink and metallic threads came later, with the 1980s redesign series that retired P#189 from circulation by 1983.