Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lettow, post: 598961, member: 6986&quot;]The Central Bank of China customs gold unit notes are an extensive series going up to 250,000.&nbsp; They are all in the vertical format except for two notes that are horizontal.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>They were first issued in 1930 and were used to pay for customs duties which had to be paid in gold.&nbsp; (This was true in the US at one time.&nbsp; If you read the indentures on early Legal Tender Notes you will see that they could not be used to pay customs duties in the US.)&nbsp; The scarcer signature varieties and the lower denominations with serial numbers on the face and back are from this initial issue.</p><p><br /></p><p>The notes were pressed into service toward the end of WWII as inflation overwhelmed China.&nbsp; They were made legal tender for all purposes and millions were produced and circulated.&nbsp; The lower denominations continued to bear the 1930 issue date although they were issued in the mid-1940s.&nbsp; The higher denominations have issue dates in 1947 and 1948.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the last few years, spurious notes from this series have crept into the market.&nbsp; Most notable are notes with denominations over 250,000 cgu.&nbsp; No note higher than this was used or printed.&nbsp; Copies of issued notes have also surfaced.&nbsp; These are sometimes hawked as having been made by &quot;bandits&quot; in the hills.&nbsp; They can be identified by awkward looking serial numbers.&nbsp; They are also lithographed and the paper is without planchets.&nbsp; What appear to be planchets in the paper are actually spots printed on the note.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in