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500 Yuan Central Bank of China
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Yuan |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The central vignette presents the memorial pailou (gateway) of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, rendered in fine line engraving against a landscape background. Numeral denomination 500 appears in all four corners within ornate guilloche scroll borders, and the issuer's name and value are inscribed in English along the upper and lower margins. The printer's imprint appears at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA FIVE HUNDRED YUAN NATIONAL CURRENCY 1944 WATERLOW & SONS LIMITED, LONDON |
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| Comments |
By 1944, the Central Bank of China's note issuance had become an instrument of wartime desperation rather than monetary management. Inflation was accelerating catastrophically — the 500 Yuan denomination, which would have been a substantial sum just years earlier, was rapidly losing purchasing power as the Nationalist government printed heavily to fund operations against both Japanese forces and the Communist armies.
Waterlow & Sons printed this series in London and shipped the finished notes to China — a logistical undertaking that was itself a statement about the collapse of domestic printing capacity under wartime conditions. The Pick 265 series was one of several high-denomination issues Waterlow produced for the Central Bank during this period, as the required face values climbed in lockstep with hyperinflation.