Deutsch-Asiatische Bank Currency & Banknote Values

The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank series of China Foreign Banks in the World Currency contains 26 distinct entries.

Founded in Shanghai in on 15 May 1889, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (DAB) was a German bank operating in several countries in Asia, with branches in Tianjin (1890), Calcutta (1895), Hankou (1897), Qingdao (1897), Hong Kong (1900), Beijing (1905) Yokohama (1905), Kobe (1906), Singapore (1906), Guangdong (1910), and Jinan (1914). It was the first large non-British bank to enter China and, in 1906, received a concession to issue banknotes in China. The bank’s priority was to finance Chinese imperial loans, focusing on railway and mining interests in the German sphere of influence, predominantly on the Shandong peninsula and in the northeast. Initial paid up capital was 5 million taels. Paper money in circulation was strictly controlled by the German government in Berlin and was never large. Upon the outbreak of World War I, the bank had to suspend operations. At the time an amount of 2,595,968 taels was outstanding. In 1917 the Chinese government revoked the bank’s note issuing rights.