Chinese Banknotes by Mark Irwin

Modern Chinese banknotes are, frankly, boring, unless you have a penchant for serial numbers and the varying profiles of Mao. But prior to the 1980s, and stretching right back to the oldest paper money in the world, the banknotes of China exhibit huge variation. From the oldest difficult-to-decipher national issues, through to the foreign banks of the 1920s and 1930s, the mass of regional bank issues of the 1920s-1940s, and the communist and Japanese puppet issues of the last decades of the old republic, as well as the other ’Sinosphere’ issues of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Manchukuo, Kiau Chau and Weihaiwei, there have been probably over 10,000 different note types issued. This lecture aims to acquaint you - as much as is possible in just an hour - with their fascinating history. Mark Irwin is the author the Banknote Book China chapter, an ongoing (and probably never ending) project which, by the time you watch this lecture, will be have reached at least 1000 pages.