5/2/2023 0 Comments Hell bank note 1000The swastika symbol dates back to the Neolithic period. Under the centre of the note there is a red svastica symbol. It shows a Chinese style Buddhist temple at left, a lotos flower with its seed pod at right. This beautiful 1000 yuan note was issued by the “Underworld Bank” ( 冥 國 銀 行, pin-yin: mingguo yinhang, literally „Darkland Bank”). When in Taibei ( Taiwan ) a few years ago I found the following hell banknote: On this card there even is a holographic structure as a security measure! And there is an interesting phrase at bottom: “IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN BY BURNING THIS CARD”:Īnother fine example is the following one (found in Singapore in 2001): The back of the card has even an imitation of the magnetic strip found on genuine cards. The first example is an imitation of a widely used American Express card (found in Bangkok about 1998): In modern times the dead in the overworld (or underworld, if you like) are in need of credit cards, too. We also find a treasure bowl (symbol of wealth), peonies and herons (symbols of longevity). (Shou refers to “old age”, Lu is a symbol of power). The old man holding an apple in his hands is “Shou”, the other person is “Lu”, they belong to the Fulushou group of three persons. The note, issued by the Underworld Bank 冥通銀行 (pin-yin: mingtong yinhang) shows two persons at left. To express such a high figure with Chinese characters the designer of the note had to use a trick, as in normal Chinese language there is no such high figure! He wrote this enormous figure as 壹佰萬億圓 (pin-yin: yi bai wan yi yuan). My scanner is not able to scan such a big note, so I can show only the left portion of the note: It is one of the biggest I have ever seen: 555 x 223 mm! And it bears the highest recorded denomination ever: 100.000.000.000.000 yuan (one hundred trillion yuan). I recently came across a hell note in Singapore. Accordingly the size of such hell notes is rather big. On the other hand we find hell notes with rather high denominations. Many years ago hell notes had rather low denominations: 1 Yuan, 5 Yuan, 10 Yuan… and in fact such denominations are still in use nowadays. Planes and ships are often pictured on hellnotes, people wish that the souls in the overworld (or underworld, if you like) may enjoy travelling around… The note was first issued in 1965, as the “serial” number (really a constant number imitating the serial number of real banknotes) begins with 1965, and we know of several Taiwanese notes from the sixties of the last century where the first four digits of the number give the year of issue. So it is not clear whether the note is intended to be a 100 yuan or a 1000 yuan bill. Near the upper corners we find “100”, but near the lower corners we see “1000”, at right of the portrait “one thousand” is written. The lady is Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain! I came to this conclusion because under the portrait of the lady we find four Chinese characters: 冥 英 銀 行 (pin-yin: ming ying yin hang) = The English Underworld Bank. At centre there is a portrait of a lady with a crown. Many years ago, when I was in Taibei, I found an interesting hellnote.
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