No, THey are actually a bit larger. about 10 inches long by 3 inches wide. The larger one is 3/16 of an inch more.
That was a mystery to me too, so I consulted with an expert on Chinese banknotes, Erwin Meyer. Erwin is one heck of a great guy with an amazing amount of knowledge and understanding of the language, culture, and history of China and their currency. He explained that the (translated) phrase is simply Copper Money, 1 Diao (diao=String). The other note doesn't have the copper character, but it is merely a shortened method of stating the same thing, and is still evidently dealing with copper units. For me, translating the charachters is one thing, but putting them into context is quite another - as with any language.