500 Dollars HSBC

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation began issuing notes in its own name in 1865, and by the 1990s remained one of three commercial banks licensed to issue Hong Kong dollar banknotes — an arrangement unique among major financial centers. This series straddles the 1997 handover, meaning notes dated before and after July 1997 carry the same design but exist in politically distinct monetary moments. HSBC continued as a note-issuing bank under the Basic Law without interruption.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement here is routine for the issuer — HSBC used them extensively across this period. Security provision on this denomination is relatively light for a high-value note, relying on watermark and thread without the more sophisticated features De La Rue was producing for other clients by the mid-1990s.