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500 - Hell Bank Note
| Issuer | 冥都銀行 (Bank of Hades) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Hell Bank Notes |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 通用冥幣 冥都銀行 伍佰 K 488844 |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 500 南無阿彌陀佛 |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Hell bank notes are votive offerings burned at funerals and ancestral ceremonies in Chinese folk religious practice, intended to transfer wealth to the deceased in the afterlife. The issuing "authority" — variously rendered as Bank of Hades, Bank of Hell, or similar — carries no monetary standing anywhere, living or dead. These are not numismatic items in any conventional sense, though they circulate freely through Chinatown novelty shops and joss paper suppliers across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and diaspora communities worldwide.
Hong Kong has been the dominant production center for export-quality hell money since the mid-twentieth century, with denominations escalating wildly over decades — inflation, apparently, knows no jurisdictional limits.