500 Yuan Bank of Pei Hai

The Bank of Pei Hai was a Communist-controlled regional bank operating in the Shandong-Bohai base area, issuing currency in direct competition with Nationalist Kuomintang notes during the civil war period. By 1948, the People's Bank of China was being consolidated, and Pei Hai notes were among the regional issues formally absorbed and demonetized as the new unified renminbi system took hold — making late-dated high-denomination Pei Hai notes transitional instruments with a very short effective lifespan.

Wartime paper stock and printing conditions in Communist-held areas were inconsistent, and the S-prefix Pick classification signals this as a specialized regional issue rather than a central emission.