10 Yuan Dream of Red Mansion

The Dream of Red Chambers series, issued by the People's Bank of China across multiple years beginning in the late 1980s, drew from what is broadly considered the greatest novel in Chinese literary history — an 18th-century Qing dynasty work so politically sensitive that it circulated in manuscript form for decades before any printed edition appeared. The 2000 issue marks the final release in the series, closing out a run that spanned twelve years and attracted a dedicated following among both literary enthusiasts and numismatic collectors in mainland China and the diaspora.