20 Dollars Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered's right to issue currency in Hong Kong — shared only with HSBC and, from 1994, Bank of China — traces back to the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which received its royal charter in 1853. The merger with Standard Bank of South Africa in 1969 created the current institution, though the Hong Kong dollar notes continued under essentially unbroken issuing authority throughout the transition.

Thomas De La Rue printed the entire series, as they had for Chartered Bank issues going back decades. The watermark on this type is the only primary security feature — relatively sparse by the standards of what other jurisdictions were demanding by the late 1980s.