General Information » Money » Local Currency

Hong Kong’s currency is the dollar, divided into 100 cents. Coins are available in 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2, $5, and $10 denominations. When the $10 coin was introduced, the $10 note was phased out. However a combination of deflation, and forgery problems with the $10 coin, means that the $10 note has been reinstated. Other notes available are the $20, $50, $100, $500 and $1,000.

You can expect to see several different designs of each note during your visit, as three of the local banks (HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China) issue their own notes. Although their designs differ, they all follow the same colour scheme, except… to add to the confusion, new $10 notes are purple and $50 notes green, but there are still older green $10 notes and purple $50 notes in circulation!

If you are visiting from the US, currency translation is straightforward as the HK$ has been pegged to the US$ since 1983, at the rate of HK$7.8 for every US$1.