Catalog
500 Dollars Standard Chartered Bank
| Issuer | Standard Chartered Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 2003 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Standard Chartered Bank |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in warm brown and purple tones on a fine guilloche underprint, with a large intaglio vignette of a phoenix in full flight occupying the left portion of the note. To the upper right, the bank's name in English and Chinese (香港渣打銀行) appears alongside the Standard Chartered globe logo, with the serial number printed in blue below. The denomination '港幣伍佰圓 / Five Hundred Hong Kong Dollars' is rendered in bold intaglio script at centre-right, above the facsimile signatures of the Chief Financial Officer and Director, dated 1 July 2003. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Protection description | Oval watermark area visible on the left side of the reverse; embedded security thread running vertically through the note. |
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| Comments |
Standard Chartered's right to issue Hong Kong dollar banknotes derives from the colonial-era arrangement that granted note-issuing privileges to specific commercial banks — a system retained after 1997 handover under the Basic Law. By 2003, all three issuing banks had migrated to the HKMA's currency board arrangement, backing every note in circulation with US dollars held in the Exchange Fund at the linked rate of 7.80.
The $500 denomination in this series is the highest value note Standard Chartered regularly issued for general circulation, and cotton substrate was standard across the issuing banks for durability in Hong Kong's humid climate. Security thread and watermark specifications for this series were coordinated with HKMA requirements, not set unilaterally by the bank.