10 000 Yuan

The First Series Renminbi (第一套人民币) was issued under extraordinary conditions — the People's Bank of China had only been founded in December 1948, and notes were being rushed into circulation across territories still actively contested in the final phase of the civil war. Printing was distributed across multiple facilities, and the 10,000 yuan denomination was among the highest face values in the series, a direct response to the hyperinflationary damage the Nationalist government's fabi and gold yuan had already done to public confidence in paper currency.

The entire First Series was demonetized in 1955 when the second series launched at a conversion rate of 10,000 old yuan to 1 new fen — effectively a redenomination that wiped four zeros off every note in circulation.