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100 Yuan - Hell Bank Note
| Issuer | 天地通用銀行 (Heaven and Earth Universal Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 2012 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Entirely printed in pink-rose monochrome; a large vignette of a classical Chinese palatial building occupies the centre-left, surrounded by guilloche lathe-work. A small portrait of a deity figure appears at lower right, with the large numeral "100" below the building vignette. |
| Reverse lettering | 100 HELL BANK NOTE 100 100 天地通用紙幣 HA 10122012 |
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| Comments |
Hell Bank Notes are ritual paper burned as offerings to the deceased, rooted in Chinese folk religion and the belief that the dead require currency in the afterlife. The "Heaven and Earth Universal Bank" has no legal or governmental standing — the name exists solely within the logic of the spirit world economy. These are manufactured for funerary consumption, not circulation, and have no monetary status under any jurisdiction.
The practice of burning paper effigies and spirit money dates back at least to the Tang dynasty. The adoption of modern banknote formats — with denominations inflated to absurd levels — accelerated through the 20th century as a way of ensuring ancestors wanted for nothing.
Surviving unburned examples are common; they were printed to be destroyed.