Duress notes (1)

After the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the executives of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation were forced to sign on the banknotes discovered in the vault of the bank in order to purchase supplies from Macao and even mainland China. Known as 'duress notes', these unbacked banknotes were not recognised shortly after the end of the war, but were later validated as legal tender. (See the image of 'Hong Kong fifty-dollar duress note of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (1934)(obverse)' in the "Hong Kong Currency" collection on Hong Kong Memory web site.)