On this day 37 years ago, on October 13, 1988 (September 3, 1988 in the lunar calendar), the first banknote of the Bank of the Republic of China was discovered in Nanjing. On October 13, 1988, Xinhua News Agency reported: The first banknote issued by the State Bank of the Republic of China - the "Nanjing coupon" of the Bank of China was recently discovered in the Nanjing Second Historical Archives. "Nanjing coupons" are divided into 1 yuan coupons and 5 yuan coupons. The 1 yuan coupon is 13.4 cm long and 8.1 cm wide. There are 4 characters "Bank of China" on the upper forehead on the front and 2 characters "Nanjing" in the lower border. The reverse side is in English, and only the manager Zou Songdan and the deputy manager Ye Jixian signed in Chinese. The 5 yuan coupon is 14.9 cm long and 9.4 cm wide. The pattern is similar to that of the 1 yuan coupon. On both sides of the front of the 1 yuan coupon and the 5 yuan coupon, there are two rows of Chinese characters: "The auspicious day of the first year of the Republic of China" and "Issued by the Bank of China". According to Kong Xiangxian, a member of the China Numismatic Society, an expert in the history of Chinese banks, and an associate researcher, the discoverer of the "Nanjing coupon": At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, there were only the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications. The Bank of Communications was established in the former Qing Dynasty. The Bank of China was newly established and achieved the status of the central bank. Therefore, the first kind of banknotes issued by the National Bank of the Republic of China were the first kind of banknotes issued by the Bank of China. Numismatists at home and abroad have always believed that the Bank of China was too late to print banknotes Kong Xiangxian said that the Nanjing branch of the Bank of China opened on February 14, 1912, and the Nanjing coupon was issued on that day. The discovery of the Nanjing coupon refutes the theory that the "Li Xiang coupon" was the first banknote of the Bank of China, thus correcting a corruption in monetary history.