Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
100 000 000 - Hell Bank Note
| Issuer | 冥都銀行 (Hell Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Multicolour vignette centred on a robed deity figure (Jade Emperor) set against a solar halo, flanked by processions of celestial figures on clouds. Denomination numerals 100000000 appear in lower left and right corners within rosette underprints. Serial number TL 2532 printed twice at top centre; Latin legend HELL BANK NOTE in a cartouche at foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 冥都銀行 壹億圓 100000000 通用冥幣 HELL BANK NOTE TL 2532 Yan Look Yu Wang |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Hell Bank Notes are votive offerings burned during Chinese and Chinese-diaspora funerary rites so that the deceased may have spending money in the afterlife — a tradition blending Buddhist and Taoist practice with older ancestor veneration. The issuing "bank" printed on these notes is purely fictitious, as is the denomination, which inflated aggressively over the decades as worshippers reasoned the afterlife probably has its own cost-of-living problem.
These are not currency in any legal or numismatic sense, but they circulate freely through temple shops, funeral parlors, and Chinatown grocers worldwide. Collectors occasionally include them in paper Americana or exonumia sections purely for the curiosity.