What is the currency of Hong Kong? How a city’s money came to be, from fresh bills to going cashless

First local bank issuing currency notes opened in 1845, and before that, myriad money types changed hands, from foreign silver coins to the Indian rupee

New bills set to be rolled out by the end of the year with fresh designs and advanced anti-counterfeit measures

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Hong Kong’s currency has undergone numerous changes through the decades and may soon be more widespread digitally as the city gears up to go cashless.

Published: 9:31am, 10 Nov 2018Updated: 11:55am, 10 Nov 2018

Hong Kong’s HK$2.7 trillion (US$341 billion) economy is run with its own dollar, a currency that has lasted through decades of British colonial rule to the city’s contemporary position as a special administrative region of China.

Despite this history, the Hong Kong dollar, or “HKD”, is most closely associated with the US dollar, instead of with the British pound or Chinese renminbi.

One of the earliest Hong Kong banknotes Courtesy: justcollecting.com

Evolving with the city as Asia’s financial hub, Hong Kong dollar bills and coins have taken on different designs and symbols through the decades, printed and minted by local banks but pegged to the US dollar for more than 30 years.

The city’s de facto central bank, the Monetary Authority, oversees the stability of the Hong Kong dollar using more than US$1 trillion in local government reserves. The authority is also in charge of the design and security of the dollar bills, with the latest patterns revealed this summer and set to be rolled out by the end of the year.

How does Hong Kong decide its currency’s exchange rate?

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