Catalog
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| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 中央銀行 關金伍仟圓 伍仟 甲年六十三國民華中 (Translation: Central Bank of China / Five Thousand Customs Gold Units / Five Thousand / Printed in the 36th year of the Republic of China) |
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| Reverse lettering | THE CENTRAL BANK OF CHINA FIVE THOUSAND CUSTOMS GOLD UNITS 5000 |
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| Comments |
The Customs Gold Unit was a specialized accounting currency introduced in 1930 to stabilize tariff collection against silver's chronic volatility — by 1947, when this note was issued, the CGU had long since lost that stabilizing function as inflation consumed the Nationalist financial system entirely. The Central Bank of China Printing Works had been pushed to produce denominations at scales that would have been inconceivable a decade earlier; 5,000 CGU represented a desperate attempt to keep paper values nominally tethered to a gold-based customs unit that no longer corresponded to any real exchange anchor.
The CGU series was formally abolished the following year when the ill-fated Gold Yuan reform swept away the accumulated debris of wartime emissions.