5000 Yuan Central Bank of China

By 1948, the Central Bank of China was printing notes in denominations that would have been unthinkable five years earlier. Hyperinflation driven by wartime deficit spending and post-war reconstruction costs had so thoroughly destroyed purchasing power that 5,000 yuan — a figure that once represented serious wealth — was effectively small change by the time this note reached circulation. The government's Gold Yuan reform of August 1948 attempted to replace the collapsing fabi currency at a rate of 3,000,000 fabi to 1 Gold Yuan, which rendered virtually the entire fabi series worthless almost immediately.

The Printing Works struggled to keep pace with demand throughout this period, and quality control on late fabi issues is noticeably uneven.