Banque Industrielle de Chine Currency & Banknote Values

The Banque Industrielle de Chine series of China Foreign Banks in the World Currency contains 82 distinct entries.

The Banque Industrielle de Chine (French: Industrial Bank of China, IND) was a joint venture between French traders and the Chinese government, chartered on 15 March 1913. The French were the dominant partners, owning two-thirds of the shares, worth 30 million francs. When the Paris headquarters failed in June 1921 due to inadequate reserves, the Chinese note-issuing branches (Canton, Hankow, Moukden, Peking, Shanghai, Swatow, and Tientsin) were forced to suspend business. Note redemption was nearly total, making issued notes extremely rare. Although the bank was restored in 1925 after a Chinese bail-out, it did not enjoy note issuing rights. All notes bear the printed signature of the bank’s founder, André Marcel Berthelot, paired with a printed or handwritten signature of a cashier. The cashier signatories appear to be unique to each branch, with no cross-over of a given cashier’s signature appearing on notes from multiple branches.