Description
Ten billion on the face of one note, and the band across the stack reads 路路畅通 — every road open. This is the note families reach for when the request is not wealth but passage: a clear road, a straight gate, nothing snagged on the way. The layout borrows the dollar face, green seal and all, because that is the shape a diaspora family recognises; the printing underneath is Chinese, and the phrase on the band is the part that gets read aloud.
What 路路畅通 is actually asking for
The four characters translate roughly as every road passes through. In funeral practice they are written on the road-opening slip, not on the money — but printers have been putting them on the band for decades because it tells the buyer at a glance which occasion the pack belongs to. Families burning for a parent in the first year, or for someone who died suddenly, tend to pick this band over the plain 招财进宝 covers. The intent is not a bigger bank balance on the other side; it is a request that the deceased not be held at a gate.
The dollar face, and what it is not
The portrait, the seal, the greenback border — all of it is printed from a dollar plate, then over-stamped with 100億 in the four corners and the denomination in Chinese at centre right. The English line THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE is part of the original plate and stays there. It means nothing: this is not legal tender, it has no cash value, and no bank anywhere will exchange it. What it does is make the offering legible — a note that looks like the money the family actually used reads as money, not as paper.
How the pack arrives
Banded bundles, gold paper strap on each, stacked and shrink-wrapped. The strap is what keeps the pad square in a bag or a suitcase; it is also the thing to cut before burning, because a banded pad burns on the outside and smoulders in the middle. Nothing in the pack is plastic — the strap is paper, the wrap is film and comes off before the fire.
When families burn these
Qingming, the fifteenth night of the seventh lunar month, the death anniversary, and the first Qingming after a burial. At our temple in Hebei we burn on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month, which is why the name slip has to close two days before: the burner needs the name written on the slip and read out before the stack goes in.
Ship it, or we burn it
Two options at checkout. Ship it to me puts the pack in the post — flat $5.95 worldwide, tracked. Burn it for me at the temple means we keep the pack, write the name and the wish on a slip in your words, burn it on the next 1st or 15th, and send the photo back. The second is for families who cannot burn where they live, which in an apartment block is most of them.
Questions we answer every week
Does a bigger number mean a bigger gift?
No. There is no exchange rate and no ledger on the other side, which is why we print it plainly on every product page. A ten-billion note and a plain sheet of yellow joss paper carry the same intent; the number is a gesture, not a balance. If you want the reasoning in full, it is in What Is Ancestor Money.
Can I write my father’s name on the note itself?
On the slip, not the note — writing over the portrait is considered careless. If you order the temple option we write the slip for you; if you are burning at home, write the name and the relationship on a plain slip and burn it under the stack. The full order of the burn is in How Much Ancestor Money to Burn.
Is this the same as the 100-Pcs Jade Emperor pack?
Different plate and different band. The Jade Emperor pack carries the deity portrait and 天地通用; this one carries the road-pass band and the dollar face. Families often buy both and burn them together — one for passage, one for standing.
