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According to an article dated 14 January 2013 in the Macau Buiness Daily, Banco Nacional Ultramarino‘s servers crashed due to the large number of online applications to buy special banknotes marking the forthcoming lunar Year of the Snake. From 2012 to 2023, BNU and Bank of China are each authorised to issue a maximum of 20 million special notes with a face value of 10 patacas (US$1.25) to mark each lunar year. The limit was imposed at the end of last January in an effort to curb the kind of crazed speculation that took hold after the Year of the Dragon notes were put in circulation in that month. BNU and Bank of China at first intended to issue only 10 million Year of the Dragon notes each, but people formed long queues to get them.
Courtesy of Allan Tilley and Wilson Chow.