Paul Lee gave his girlfriend a $10,000 Singapore banknote (worth about HK$54,700) to deposit into his account at Hongkong Bank.
She went to the branch at the Korea Centre in Sheung Wan. The cashier couldn't handle it, and soon staff all the way up to the manager were studying the hugely valuable bit of Singaporean paper. None of them had seen one before.
They offered to send it to their branch in Singapore for authentication and warned that it could take up to three weeks to process.
The young lady instead went to the United Overseas Bank (a Singaporean bank), which accepted the note.
Paul wrote to me to pour scorn on the response of the Hongkong Bank branch in Sheung Wan.
Actually, Paul, Sheung Wan is my stomping ground, and it's a humble area. Business people there are deeply suspicious even of HK$500 banknotes.
