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5000 Yuan Central Bank of China
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 155 × 64 mm |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Intricate green guilloche design covers the entire field, with four corner vignettes bearing urn motifs and arabesque ornamental borders. The denomination 伍仟圓 is repeated in a central oval medallion, with the numeral 5000 printed in each corner. Two manuscript signatures of bureau chiefs appear at left and right of centre. |
| Reverse lettering | 伍仟圓 5000 局長 陳廷祈 局長 梁平 (Translation: 5000 Yuan / Bureau Chief Chen Tingqi / Bureau Chief Liang Ping) |
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| Comments |
By 1947, the Central Bank of China was printing in denominations that would have been unthinkable five years earlier. This 5,000 Yuan note emerged mid-hyperinflation, a crisis driven by wartime deficit spending and the cost of fighting both Japan and the Communists simultaneously — the money supply had expanded roughly 300-fold between 1937 and 1945 alone, and the trajectory only worsened afterward.
The Central Engraving and Printing Plant struggled to keep pace with demand, and quality control across the series is inconsistent. Notes from this period frequently show uneven ink distribution and misaligned overprints — not errors per se, but predictable consequences of a facility running beyond its designed capacity.
The 1948 currency reform replaced the Yuan with the Gold Yuan at 3,000,000 to 1, rendering this note worthless within months of issue.