500 Yuan Central Bank of China

The Central Bank of China turned to Waterlow & Sons for this 1936 issue at a moment when Nationalist currency policy was still finding its footing following the 1935 fabi reforms, which had abolished the silver standard and centralized note-issuing authority under four government banks. H.H. Kung — rendered here as H.A. Kung — served simultaneously as Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor, a concentration of control that drew persistent criticism from within the Nationalist government itself.

Waterlow's reputation suffered a catastrophic blow just two years earlier with the Portuguese escudo forgery scandal of 1932, yet the firm retained major sovereign contracts well into the late 1930s.