Bank puts centenary notes sale act in order
The remaining 405,000 single HK$100 banknotes marking the Bank of China's centenary will be available for pre-order only at the end of next month after the mad rush for the bills saw sales halted two weeks ago.
This time, applications have to be made online or by handing in a special form at branches from March 26 to 31.
A source from the bank admitted that the frenzy for banknotes earlier this month was 'beyond expectations', and that the safety of customers and staff had been put at risk as tens of thousands of people besieged branches across the city.
The bank stopped distributing numbered tickets to queuers on February 14 after two days of chaos. By then they had sold about 695,000 notes, priced at HK$150 each, out of 1.1 million produced.
The Bank of China has already accepted over 1.79 million pre-order applications for a set of three uncut notes and over 1.65 million applications for a set of 30 uncut notes. Only 100,000 sets and 20,000 sets are available respectively.
Hong Kong residents made 96 per cent of the applications, and 92 per cent were done online.
The notes will be randomly allotted to applicants by computer, meaning that the chance of getting the 3-in-1 uncut notes was 5.6 per cent, while that for the 30-in-1 uncut notes was 1.2 per cent. Results will be announced on March 12.
