A special commemorative banknote was issued by the Bank of China (Hong Kong) a month before the 2008 Beijing Olympics (XXIX Olympiad). A total of four million pieces of HK$20 Olympic banknotes were printed. Since there were multiple-in-one packages, there were only 3.14 million items available for sale, of which 2.93 million of these items were sold in Hong Kong.
The single HK$20 banknote is presented in a blue-purple folder and is sold for HK$138, almost seven times its face value. The 4-in-1 uncut sheets are sold for HK$338, while the 35-in-1 uncut sheets are sold for HK$1388. Queues started two days before the note was made available to the public.
Features on the obverse include a picture of a plinth, the official Beijing Olympics emblem and the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. The Olympic Stadium, commonly known as the ‘Bird’s Nest’ is shown on the reverse.
This banknote shares the same colour and size as the 2003 HK$20 note issued by the Bank of China (Hong Kong). However, new security features such as bright-and-highlighted watermarks and colour-changing windowed threads were introduced. The serial number consists of six digits and may include a two-letter prefix. The prefixes include AA, BJ and HK. The remaining 1 million banknotes do not bear a prefix.