Hell Bank Notes

Hell Bank Note

Back on the subject of Hell...

Connor went on an outing with his Bigs last weekend to a Buddhist Temple (the Texas Guandi Temple). He arrived home with a packet full of play money in which each bill was labeled "Hell Bank Note." The denomination of the bills is 10,000 dollars, which is odd enough, but play money called "Hell Bank Note" intriged me. I could only imagine it was somehow connected to "money being the root of all evil." Understandably, I had to research this money and I found several websites devoted to this subject, including: Chinese Ritual Papers, Hell Money, Washington Square Coin Exchange, and Hell Bank Notes (Hell Money).

Most of the information I found says that the money was burned or used in a rituals for the dead, and that it was named "Hell money" because missionaries told the Chinese people that they would "go to Hell" if they did not convert to Christianity. Being threatened with Hell apparently gave the Chinese the impression that Hell is the English word for "afterlife," which does not carry the same meaning for Buddhists as it does for Christians. It is missing the fear factor, so to speak. The missionaries probably should have been a little more specific about the nature of Hell, if they wanted to put the fear into their prospective converts. If you check out some of the links I posted, you will see that most of the money pictured on other sites is quite beautiful and very colorful. It is easy to understand why people collect Hell Money.