HSBC banknotes from Hong Kong make up one of the three groups of paper money that is issued by banks in the former British colony. Aside from HSBC, which stands for Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Bank of China and Standard Chartered Bank also issue banknotes; like the other banks, HSBC’s Hong Kong dollar-denominated banknotes come in color-coded $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000 varieties. (Ten dollar notes are issued by the Hong Kong government itself.)
Early banknotes from HSBC came in the 1870s, and included smaller denominations than are seen today, including $1 and $5 notes. It is possible for most collectors to find some of the banknotes of the early decades of HSBC’s banknote program, but it may be tougher to find them at affordable prices for some buyers.
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HSBC kept up an ambitious and busy banknote-issuing schedule from the start, and today the bank issues two-thirds of Hong Kong’s banknotes. Collectors looking for a piece of HK banknote history will hardly be able to avoid HSBC notes, and the for-sale listings online come and go daily. Note that while some sellers use the acronym HSBC in their listings, many simply include the word SHANGHAI to describe their items.
