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Auction: 7002 - Banknotes of Hong Kong & China
Lot: 2083

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, specimen $500, 1 January 1912, brown and pale blue, arms of the Bank at centre, man and buffalo with plough at left, the Hong Kong Botanic gardens at right, value at centre and at each corner, reverse red, bank building at centre, value at left and right (P. 164, Cribb Money in the Bank p.63), extremely fine, an attractive Waterlow engraving, very rare Estimate HK$ 80,000-100,000This design was printed from 1905 to 1925, though the colour of the back printing was changed from time to time as an anti-forgery device. It appears that the $500 of 1905 is simply a prototype and the cataloguer believes that no genuine issued example of any date through 1925 exists. The only currency note that can be confirmed is that illustrated on p.63 of Cribb, dated 1925, serial #120001, cancelled without being signed as a record of 20,000 notes destroyed on Vandeleur Grayburn´s instructions. Accordingly the only way to obtain any date of this most attractive high denomination issue is in Specimen form. This is believed to be the first time a 1912 $500 has appeared at auction.

Sold for
HK$65,000