5000 Yuan

The Central Reserve Bank of China was a Japanese-sponsored institution established in Nanjing in 1941 to manage currency in the occupied territories. By 1945 the bank's emissions had become almost purely inflationary instruments — the 5000 Yuan denomination itself signals the collapse in purchasing power that had overtaken earlier, smaller issues within just a few years of the bank's founding.

Japan's surrender in August 1945 rendered the entire note series worthless almost immediately, and the Nationalist government conducted redemptions at deeply punitive rates. Circulated survivors are surprisingly common; hoarding made little sense when the end was already visible.