In this banknote, the chinese engravers added letters to the scrollwork on the banknotes. On the Central Reserve Bank of China 50 cents note of 1940 they dispersed the English letters "C G W R S." The letters allegedly represent "Central Government Will Return Soon."
The Central Reserve Bank was chartered 19 December 1940 under the authority of Wang Ching-Wei, chief of the pro-Japanese collaborationist government.
The English letters "CGWRS" are dispersed within the scrollwork above and below the word "Reserve" on the back. In the upper scrollwork four letters are in a line from left to right in the following order: "G," "R," "C," and "W." The "S" is at upper center in the lower scrollwork. The front of the note contains five hidden Chinese characters that have a similar meaning, located on the Sun Yat Sen mausoleum and in the trees surrounding the mausoleum.
The true meaning of the letters has been questioned, but "Central Government Will Return Soon" was a popular and well known propaganda slogan, so there is some reason to believe that these symbols were hidden on the banknote for propaganda purposes.
This banknote underwent three printings, with color changes, without the propaganda being detected by the Japanese. The 50 cent banknotes are found in red-brown, orange, and purple. This is the only known example of the type which seems to have upset the Japanese to some degree. The message interpreted by all to mean “U.S. Army Coming 1945,” was correct as it turned out. The guilty engraver spent the remaining year of the war hiding in Hong Kong.
