HK$20 — Twenty Dollars
The artwork
Front: A snarling lion's head in three-quarter profile fills the left half — one of the bronze lions that guard the bank's Hong Kong headquarters, engraved large and rendered in grey. Behind the wording sits a pale harbour skyline. The issuer's name runs in English along the top and in Chinese beneath, with TWENTY HONGKONG DOLLARS and 港幣貳拾元 in deep red, a single Executive Director's signature, and the date 1st January 1996 in both scripts.
Back: The two reclining bronze lions, Stephen and Stitt, sit either side of the bank's Norman Foster headquarters at 1 Queen's Road Central, the tower drawn in red-brown with its suspension trusses clearly picked out. To the right, a Star Ferry stands at its pier under a smoking funnel. Chinese issuer name above, English below, with 20 and 貳拾 in the four corners.
In circulation
Part of the lion's-head design HSBC introduced in 1993, the first of its notes to carry no royal imagery. This twenty circulated through the handover and into the early 2000s, until HSBC's brightly coloured 2003 series — with its new twenty in a paler palette — took over and the older notes were steadily withdrawn.
Details
- CurrencyDollar (HK$)
- DenominationTwenty Dollars
- Collectedon the Hong Kong journey, 1993
- IssuerThe Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
- Series1993 design; dated 1st January 1996
- SignatureOne signature, titled Executive Director / 執行董事
- SecuritySerial number twice in red, prefix GS, printed horizontally and vertically