5000 Yuan Central Bank of China

By 1947, the Central Bank of China was printing in denominations that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier. Hyperinflation driven by wartime military expenditure and post-war reconstruction costs was accelerating so rapidly that this 5,000 Yuan note — a significant sum when first issued — became effectively worthless within months of release. The following year, the government's currency reform replaced the Fabi entirely with the Gold Yuan at a rate of 3,000,000 to 1.

Thomas De La Rue printed this series in London, one of several high-denomination issues the firm handled for the Republic during the Fabi's terminal decline. The irony of a collapsing currency being produced to high specification by one of the world's premier security printers was not lost on contemporary observers.