500 Yuan Central Bank of China

By 1945, the Central Bank of China was printing in denominations that would have been unthinkable five years earlier — inflation driven by wartime Japanese occupation and Nationalist government deficit spending had made the 500 Yuan note a practical everyday denomination rather than a large-value instrument. The American Bank Note Company had been producing Chinese government currency since the Republic's early years, and the relationship continued through the war despite the obvious logistical complications of printing for a government whose territory was being contested.

Pick 283 belongs to the final stretch of the legal currency (fabi) system before it collapsed entirely. Within three years of this note's issue date, hyperinflation had rendered the entire fabi series worthless, replaced first by the Gold Yuan and then by nothing the public would accept.