The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was the only bank authorised to issue Hong Kong $1 notes, from 1872 until the Government took over the denomination in 1935. Among early HSBC dollars, collectors still use the nickname 支票仔 (“cheque kid / cheque note”) for the late-1880s style that looks more like a drawn cheque than a later pictorial banknote.
How to recognise it
- Nickname year in local guides is often given as 1889; catalogues place related $1 types in the 1884–1899 HSBC issue group (commonly Pick 136).
- Design language is spare and documentary: bank title, promise-to-pay wording and a cheque-like field layout rather than a large central vignette.
- English references describe the 1889 redesign as roughly 129 × 86 mm, with a blue face and red reverse — useful when comparing later green arched-bridge dollars.
Collecting notes
Cheque-style HSBC dollars are scarcer in high grade than later 1920s issues. Confirm printer, date varieties and signatures against a specialised Hong Kong catalogue before treating any example as a textbook 支票仔.
