1 Jiao

Issued by the Republic of China government in exile following its retreat to Taiwan in 1949, this coin appeared during a period of acute monetary instability — the catastrophic hyperinflation of the late 1940s on the mainland had so thoroughly destroyed confidence in Chinese currency that the new Taiwan Dollar, introduced in 1949 at a rate of 40,000 old Taiwan yuan, was itself a stabilization measure. The aluminium-magnesium alloy reflects postwar material constraints rather than any preference for the metal.