BANKNOTES OF THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA
These notes are available for your viewing pleasure!
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

Date	Pick#	Denomination	Observations	Obverse	Reverse
1960	876	5 Yuan
1990	884b	1 Yuan
Obverse Design: Two Youths Reverse Design: Great Wall
1980	886	5 Yuan
Obverse Design: Two people Reverse Design: River between mountains
1980	887	10 Yuan
Obverse Design: Two people Reverse Design: Mountains
1990	888	50 Yuan
Obverse Design: An intellectual, a farmer, and an industrial worker Reverse Design: Waterfalls
1990	889	100 Yuan
Obverse Design:  Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De Reverse Design:  Mountains
1999	891	50 Yuan
1999	895	1 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Three Pools Mirroring the Moon at West Lake
1999	897	5 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Mount Tai
1999	898	10 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Three Gorges of the Yangtze River
1999	900	50 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Potala Palace in Tibet
1999	901	100 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Great Hall of the People
2000	902	100 Yuan
2005	903	5 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Mount Tai
2005	904	10 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Three Gorges of the Yangtze River
2005	905	20 Yuan
Obverse Design: Mao Zedong Reverse Design: Scenery of Guilin
Foreign Exchange Certificates
1979	FX3	1 Yuan
1979	FX5	10 Yuan

The history of the Chinese Yuan
China was never united monetarily prior to the second half of the twentieth century. Prior to this many different locally issued currencies and currency systems were in use in China. Prior to 1948 banks, local government and private companies were free to issue their own banknotes. In 1948 The Bank of Central China, the Bank of Peihai and the Bank of Shansi, Chahar and Hopeh were consolidated to create the People’s Bank of China, which became the sole banknote issuing authority in China.

 The current currency the Yuan Renminbi was first issued shortly before the takeover of mainland China by the communists in 1949. One of the first problems the new communist government faced was to end the hyperinflation and the currency confusion which had been plaguing China since the end of Chinese nationalist rule. In 1955 the currency was revalued at a rate of 1 new Yuan to 10,000 old Yuan.

During the time of the centrally-planned economy the value of the Yuan-Renminbi was set unrealistically against other foreign currencies and very strict currency exchange controls were put into place. When the Chinese economy opened in 1978 a dual track currency system was instituted, the Yuan-Renminbi was inconvertible and usable only domestically. Foreigners coming to China were forced to use foreign exchange certificates which were only useable in certain shops but foreigners had the ability to reconvert their unused foreign exchange certificates back into hard currency.  The unrealistic exchange rates and strict rules set by the government remained in force which created let to a huge black market for foreign currencies.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Chinese government worked to make the Yuan-Renminbi more convertible, through the use of exchange centers, the exchange rate was brought to realistic levels and the dual track currency system was abolished.  The use of foreign exchange certificates has also been abolished.

The Chinese Yuan Renminbi’s ISO 4217 code is CNY although it is also equally common to be written as RMB by the international community. Since the sales tax now in China is included into the prices, the fen and jiao have become increasingly unnecessary. Retailers in China seem to prefer to avoid decimal values by pricing most items to the nearest Yuan. Prices are generally expressed using  after the price i.e. 100 although the use of ¥ or Y before the price is also common i.e. ¥100.

The current series of banknotes in use in China, dated 1999 and 2005 are issued in the following denominations: 1 jiao or ¥0.1, 5 jiao or ¥0.5, ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, ¥20, ¥50 and ¥100. The previous series issued since the late 1980s circulates alongside the new series. 1 and 5 jiao notes are still being issued as the old series and have not yet been redesigned.  Coins are currently issued in denominations of of ¥0.1, ¥0.5, and ¥1 One of odd thing is that all denominations of Chinese currency are available in banknote form. Older Chinese banknotes dated 1960 have been withdrawn and were recalled completely in 2000, these notes are no longer legal tender.
 

BACK TO HOMEPAGE
Page created:     1 September 2006
Last Update:      28 September 2006

Maps are provided by Graphic Maps
All maps provided by them bear their copyright information.
All scans shown here are of actual notes from my collection unless otherwise noted.
Images and content unless otherwise noted are copyrighted.
(c) 2006 Will's Online World Paper Money Gallery