This example is a remainder: the two scalloped medallions that would normally carry the serial numbers and any branch designation have been left blank, and no serial or overprint was ever applied. Remainders of this type survive because large quantities of printed but unissued stock remained in bank hands when the Japanese invasion of 1937 and the subsequent civil war disrupted distribution, and were later released into the collector market. Such notes are catalogued separately from issued examples and are typically found in higher grades, though this specimen has suffered later pen scribbling across the face.

Obverse

Central engraving of a steam locomotive on tracks, moving forward with visible smoke emitting from the engine, and a small sailing ship. Scene is surrounded by ornate guilloche patterns. Flanking the locomotive are two geometric security features in the form of intricate circular designs on either side. In the top-center, there is Chinese text within an ornamental border. The corners display Chinese characters enclosed in floral-bordered boxes. The serial number, printed in red, appears twice in the upper corners Red square seals appear below the circular designs

Script: Chinese

Lettering:
行銀通交

壹
圓

壹國民中
元幣國華

印年四十二國民華中

Translation:
Bank of Communications
One Yuan
Republic of China national currency
Printed year 24 of Republic of China

Reverse

View of the Summer Palace in Beijing. Surrounding the main scene are intricate guilloche patterns. The denomination "ONE YUAN" is printed below the central image. The year "1935" appears at the bottom, with a note of the printer’s details.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
BANK OF COMMUNICATIONS

ONE YUAN
OF THE NATIONAL CURRENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA
1935
THOMAS DE LA RUE & COMPANY, LIMITED. LONDON

Watermark

Train

Printer

De La Rue (Thomas de la Rue; Thomas De La Rue & Co.; TDLR), London, United Kingdom (1821-date)

Title 1935 China Bank of Communications 1 Yuan P153 De La Rue Locomotive Remainder Banknote

Front Description Republic of China one yuan note of the Bank of Communications, printed by intaglio in deep purple and violet with olive-green highlight panels on cream wove paper, in the Western security-printing style of Thomas De La Rue.

The design is symmetrical within a heavy ornamental frame filled with dense lattice and rosette guilloche. The Chinese numeral 壹 (one) appears in a shaded panel at each of the four corners.

Across the top, within a rectangular panel on olive-green ground, is the bank name in large Chinese characters read right to left: 交通銀行 (Bank of Communications).

The central vignette shows a steam locomotive in three-quarter view running toward the viewer along a ballasted track, with a large headlamp, tall smokestack issuing smoke, and coupled tender behind. A waterway with small sailing craft is visible in the left background beneath a clouded sky. The subject reflects the bank's founding purpose as financier of railways, shipping, posts and telegraphs.

To the left of the vignette, within a scalloped medallion, is the denomination 壹圓 (one yuan) in large characters on dark guilloche ground. A matching scalloped medallion at the right is filled with fine engine-turned rosette work and left blank of serial numbering.

Below the vignette, on an olive-green panel, are the characters 中華民國 國幣 壹元 (Republic of China, National Currency, One Yuan), with the date line beneath in Chinese: 中華民國二十四年印 (Printed in the twenty-fourth year of the Republic of China).

The printer's imprint in small Chinese characters appears at the lower centre: 德納羅印鈔公司 (De La Rue Printing Company).

The lower field to left and right is filled with dense microprint repeating the bank name in Chinese characters.

Back Description Printed by intaglio in matching deep purple and violet with olive-green highlights.

Across the top on an olive-green panel, in shadowed roman capitals: "BANK OF COMMUNICATIONS"

The central vignette shows a Chinese landscape scene of a hillside temple or pavilion complex with multi-tiered pagoda-roofed halls rising in stages above a wooded slope, with a balustraded lakeside terrace and covered walkway along the water in the foreground. The composition is generally identified with the Summer Palace at Peking.

Flanking the vignette are two large scalloped medallions filled with fine engine-turned rosette guilloche, the right containing a large ornamental numeral "1".

Beneath the vignette, within a scrolled cartouche: "ONE YUAN", and below it: "OF THE NATIONAL CURRENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA"

Two engraved facsimile signatures appear at the lower left and lower right in the officers' positions, reading "T. S. Wong" and a second signature.

The date "1935" is printed within a small panel at the lower centre, above the printer's imprint in small capitals: "THOMAS DE LA RUE & COMPANY, LIMITED, LONDON"

The numeral "1" appears in a panel at each lower corner, and again at the upper corners within the frame.

The field to left and right is filled with dense microprint repeating "BANK OF COMMUNICATIONS".

Character and Text Summary

交通銀行 Jiāotōng Yínháng "Bank of Communications"

壹圓 Yī yuán "One Yuan"

壹 Yī "One"

中華民國 國幣 壹元 Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guóbì Yī yuán "Republic of China, National Currency, One Yuan"

中華民國二十四年印 Zhōnghuá Mínguó èrshísì nián yìn "Printed in the 24th year of the Republic of China" (1935)

德納羅印鈔公司 Dénàluó Yìnchāo Gōngsī "De La Rue Printing Company"

BANK OF COMMUNICATIONS ONE YUAN OF THE NATIONAL CURRENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA THOMAS DE LA RUE & COMPANY, LIMITED, LONDON 1935

Estimated Era Dated 1935, twenty-fourth year of the Republic of China. Pick catalogue reference P-153

The date appears in both Western and Chinese Republican forms on the note itself. The Republican calendar counts from the founding of the Republic in 1912, so the twenty-fourth year corresponds to 1935, and the two dating systems agree.

The issuer, the Bank of Communications, was founded in 1908 under the late Qing to finance the railway, shipping, postal and telegraph networks, and continued after 1912 as one of the note-issuing banks of the Republic. Its association with transport infrastructure explains the locomotive vignette on the face, a device the bank used consistently across its issues.

The year of issue is significant. In November 1935 the Nationalist government carried out the fabi currency reform, abandoning the silver standard and restricting legal note issue to a small group of government banks, of which the Bank of Communications was one. The inscription describing the note as national currency of the Republic reflects this new status.

Production was by Thomas De La Rue and Company of London, whose imprint appears on both faces in English and Chinese. British and American security printers supplied much of China's Republican-era paper money, and the dense guilloche work, microprint fields and engraved vignettes here are characteristic of De La Rue's output of the period.

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