I have two China notes: 1) 1928, The Central Bank of China, ten dollars and, 2) 1940, The Central Reserve Bank of China, ten yuan And idea of value?
I'm curious why the '28 bill is in dollars and the '40 is in yuan? And did the Central Bank of China become the Central Reserve Bank of China?
From the arrival of the European colonialists in the mid-19th century (I know there were European colonies before that, but the large scale arrival didn't occur until the mid-19th century) to the victory of the Communists (on the mainland, at least) in 1949, China was weak, dominated and invaded by foreign powers, as well as involved in several civil wars of its own. Such political turmoil often causes the rise and fall of banks and currencies with alarming speed. Doesn't do wonders for the economy either.
Nope. The Central Bank was the main bank of Nationalist China and remained in service through WWII. The Central Reserve Bank was one of the primary Japanese puppet banks during the occupation. Why the difference in dollars and yuan? Well, really there is no difference.. "yuan", in English, is the equivalent of "dollar". Dollar picked up fairly early on as the word to use with foreigners, so any bank wanting foreign investors would've been wise to use it. And they did. But as far as the Central Bank goes, they only used dollars in the early years, until 1928, and at the end, in 1949--using yuan in between. I don't know the minute history of the Bank, but it wouldn't be too wild a guess that the naming of the denomination had a political element. As for values: The 1928 note in uncirculated condition ranges from $1 to $15 depending on whose signature is on it (you'll have to find a Pick catalog to tell the difference). There are a few varieties of the 1940 note.. does yours have the serial number on both sides? two smaller Chinese characters on either side of the big, fancy characters on the portrait side? or two characters printed over the squares on that same side? Could be a valuable one depending on the variety.
The serial numbers are on the face of the bill (if we use the same designations as we would for a dollar), there are two characters above red boxes on either side of the portrait. And it's curious to me but on the back side there are the signatures of the Governor and Vice Governor but they are in script not characters. T.K. Chien (VG) and F.H. Chow (G). I also have a 5 yuan bill from 1940 but it's in pretty bad shape...looks like someone carried it around as emergency yuan.
