The bamboo tally is a part banknote, part coin or 'trading facilitator'. It was used like a 'money receipt' mostly ( but not exclusively ) in Shanghai & Hong Kong.

For example, if one went to a gambling parlor, on entering you'd fork over you hard earned money, for which they'd give you these sticks of various denominations. And when upon arriving at the gambling tables, you'd plop down your tallies as representing the money of the bet. On the rare chance that you won, you'd get sticks and not cash as your reward ( which you could later either loose back to the house or trade in for the real stuff ).

Each one has a hole ( except the rice wine stick types ) for easy stringing and they were often found in difinitive number groups ( e.g. 10, 20 etc ), most of the names and denominations are shown for each tally. Be aware, that in any given group there could be a wide variation in the color ( or discoloration ) of each piece, and because these were not knocked out with the precision of coins, there are many differences from one piece to the next.

Tallies have been used in many countries over the centuries and one of the funniest ( ironic ) stories concerning these pieces, takes place in England when, in the 1780's the Government stopped using them, but could not decide how to get rid of their vast accumulation ( since the 14th Century ) of these bits of wood. Finally, in 1834 Parliament rose to the occasion and decided to burn them. So, they set fire to the horde, which burned out of control, spreading to, and burning down the English Parliament building.

Wood tallies are sometimes found ( as old American baseball cards are too ) as insulation in buildings constructed around the turn of the century ( primarily 1890's to 1915 ).