The five-dollar note was first issued in 1858 by the Mercantile Bank, 1865 by the Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), 1866 by the

Oriental Bank Corporation The Oriental Bank Corporation (), or "OBC", was a British imperial bank founded in India in 1842 which grew to be prominent throughout the Far East. As an Exchange bank, the OBC was primarily concerned with the finance of trade and exchanges of ...

, 1897 by

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (), commonly known as HSBC (), was the parent entity of the multinational HSBC banking group until 1991, and is now its Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific subsidiary. The largest bank in Hong K ...

, and 1894 by the National Bank of China. There was a continuous issue until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in different colours and dimensions, and this issue was resumed after the war in 1946, by the HSBC and Standard Chartered banks. The various banks' designs were somewhat standardised in 1970 when the Chartered Bank changed the issue from green to brown, as this was the colour of the HSBC issue. The Standard Charted Bank issued two colours from 1967 to 1970, a yellow and green note. These are described as being a yellow and green key in reference to the image of two keys on either side of the banknote. This denomination was replaced by a coin in 1976.

References

* Ma Tak Wo 2004, Illustrated Catalogue of Hong Kong Currency, Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co., LTD Kowloon Hong Kong. {{Authority control Banknotes of Hong Kong Five-base-unit banknotes