100 Yuan - Hell Bank Note

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.