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50 000 000 - Hell Bank Note
| Issuer | Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Religious banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio-style print on a green-yellow guilloche patterned underprint. A central medallion contains a portrait of the Jade Emperor (Yen Loor Yu Wong). Serial numbers appear at upper left and right, with the denomination in numerals at the middle left. Bilingual inscriptions identify the issuing authority as the 冥通銀行 (Bank of Hades) and declare the note valid for use in the underworld (地府通用). |
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| Reverse lettering | HELL BANK NOTE No482159 伍仟萬 50000000 DOLLARS 地府通用鈔票 |
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| Comments |
Hell Bank Notes are not currency in any conventional sense — they are votive offerings burned at funerals and ancestral rites so the deceased receive wealth in the afterlife. The practice draws on centuries of Chinese tradition in which paper effigies of valuables were cremated as offerings. The denomination is purely theatrical; the larger the number, the better the gift to the dead.
The "Bank of Hell" imprint and the English text are deliberate parody of colonial Hong Kong banknotes. Collectors occasionally acquire these as novelty items, but they have no monetary status whatsoever and were never intended to.