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4 Coppers Ho Pei Metropolitan Bank
| Issuer | Ho Pei Metropolitan Bank (河北銀錢局) |
|---|---|
| Year | 27 (1938) |
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| Currency | Yuan (1895-1949) |
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| Obverse description | Green vertical-format note with dense guilloche border. Central oval vignette shows a traditional Chinese pavilion with arched bridge and pine trees. Bank title in Chinese characters across the top, date and legal tender clauses in the lower panel, flanked by large denomination numerals in all four corners. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Green vertical-format note with an elaborate guilloche underprint of interlocking floral rosettes filling the field. The denomination characters 銅元肆枚 are printed in large script at center, flanked by numeral "4" in four cartouches at the corners. A plain rectangular panel at the base carries the English legend. |
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| Comments |
The Ho Pei Metropolitan Bank (河北銀錢局) was a provincial institution operating under Japanese occupation authorities in Hebei — this note dates to 1938, the year after the fall of Beijing, when puppet financial structures were being rapidly assembled to stabilize commerce in occupied north China. The Beijing Printing Bureau, already under Japanese administrative control by that point, handled production locally rather than through the better-equipped facilities in Shanghai or Tokyo.
Small-denomination copper-unit notes like this one circulated heavily at street level and wore out fast. Survivors in any condition above heavy use are uncommon for exactly that reason.