中華人民共和國澳門特別行政區
Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
中國银行 / Banco Da China / Bank of China
This is a commemorative 20 patacas banknote issued on 22.10.2019, celebrating 20th year of Macau's returned back to China 1999-2019. This is a joint issue with the Banco Nasional Ultramarino celebrating this special occasion. A total quantity of 5.0 million pieces issued but is limited to 5 pieces per person. It is believed that this note is not intended for general circulation.
The design of this note features a golden Shengshi lotus flower on the front. The lotus flower is the national flower of Macau. On the left is the main building of the Bank of China building in Taipa Macau. The note is printed with the date of 1 de Abril de 2019 (01.04.2019).
On the back, it features the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge and tunnel (HZMB), linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai China (珠海市中国) and Macau. This is the longest ocean crossing bridge ever built in the world. It involves three man made islands and also the world longest undersea tunnel crossing of 6.7km. The entire crossing is 55km long and it took 8 years to complete at a cost of USD18+ billion. The bridge is built with 3 spans running from left (Macau), Jiuzhoua channel bridge (two-sail shape towers), Jianghai channel bridge (3-sail shape towers) and Qingzhou channel bridge (as the main image on the back of the note). Like all mega project, the construction of this bridge was delayed by more than a year with cost overruns, human casualties and not to mention the environment impact on those white dolphins living around the areas. The HZMB was completed in early 2018 and opened to traffic in October 2018. The crossing takes about 45 minutes by car from end to end, reducing the journey from 4.5 hours if one has to drive inland between Hong Kong and Macao via China. This bridge is built to withstand a super typhoon or an earthquake of 8.0 on Richter magnitude scale. Seriously do you want to risk this, really? I believe the view on the back of this note heading from Hong Kong on the left to Macau/China on the right.
The road systems in China is that all cars drive on the right hand side of the road whilst both Hong Kong and Macau are the opposite. The entire crossing follows the China road systems but with crossover when reaching both Hong Kong and Macau territories. When the bridge was first completed and for one who wants to use this bridge, one has to apply for the daily quota permit limited to 10,000, pay a significant fee, have adequate insurance and also a special driving license too (not sure if this is still the case). There are further restriction once in Macau as it only allows up to 300 foreign cars entering this enclave daily.
The value of 20 patacas represents the 20th year anniversary. This is the 11th commemorative note issued by the Bank of China since 1995.
Twenty Patacas
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| Dated 2019 |
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| Reverse |
The design of this note (front and back) are identical to the one issued by Banco Nasional Ultramarino, except the issuing bank's respective brand, logo, head office building and signature/title.
Buyer's Beware
It is believe that there are no official folders issued for this series. If you have bought any of the notes in folders, then these folders are "home-made" and not sanctioned by the two issuing banks. To me, this is the simplest way to tell the differences; -
-Macau use traditional Chinese writing and the name MACAU is written as "澳門";
-in China, the simplified Chinese writing for Macau is "澳门";
-the difference between these two is the second character "門" vs "门" (meaning Door/Gate in English);
-whilst the note is printed with the traditional Chinese character, the folder is not;
-like Hong Kong and Taiwan, Macau have not switched over to the simplified Chinese writing since it was first started in mainland China in the 1930s;
-of course, there are other writings on the folder and on the note have the same meaning but written differently (traditional vs simplified).
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge and tunnel (HZMB)
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