Central Reserve Bank of China (行銀備儲央中) Currency & Banknote Values

The Greysheet Catalog (GSID) of the Central Reserve Bank of China (行銀備儲央中) series of China Occupation in the World Currency contains 96 distinct entries with CPG® values between $1.00 and $5,700.00.

On 30 March 1940, a new collaborationist government, named the Reorganized Government of the Republic of China, was established in Nanjing, capital of the previous Reformed Government of the Republic of China. This Reorganized government claimed authority over not only the previous Reformed government, but also over both the Provisional Government of the Republic of China (see B5401-) and the Federated Autonomous Government of the Mongol Borderland (see B5201-) to the north. In practice, however, its influence in these quarters was weak.

In terms of banknote issues, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China and the Federated Autonomous Government of the Mongol Borderland continued to issue banknotes independently until the Japanese occupation ceased at the end of World War II.

The Central Reserve Bank of China (CRB) was established as the central bank of the Reorganized Government of the Republic of China on 6 January 1941, headquartered in Nanjing and with its primary branch in Shanghai. It took over note issuing from the Hua Hsing Commercial Bank, the official issuer of the previous Reformed Government (B5501-).

Acceptance of the new notes by financial institutions and the general population was slow, with few believing claims that the notes were backed by sufficient reserves. Many thought the notes worthless and refused to accept them and foreign banks were reluctant to handle them. In March 1941, the Reorganized Government of the Republic of China began a series of moves to improve their acceptability of the new notes, including a Legal Tender Law which imposed jail terms of 3 to 10 years, and fines

of up to 5,000 yuan, for refusing to accept Central Reserve Bank notes. On 7 June 1942, the regime banned the use of notes from the Central Bank of China (B3001), the Bank of China (B1001) and the Bank of Communiations (B1411). At the same lime it was announced that the newly prohibited notes could be exchanged for Central Reserve Bank notes.

With the ebb and flow of World War II, the Reorganized Government of the Republic of China grew and subsequently contracted in territory. At its peak, it extended well into the south of China, leading to the issue of Central Reserve Bank of China notes with Guangdong and Wuhan place of issue overprints. In January 1944, the Reorganized Government of the Republic of China decreed that foreign exchange between Japanese-occupied China and other areas of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere

(i.e. Japanese occupied territories in east and southeast Asia) would henceforth be controlled by the Central Reserve Bank of China, greatly increasing the notes’ popularity.