20 Yuan 100th Anniversary of finding Dun Huang Grottoes

The Dunhuang Grottoes — more precisely the Mogao Caves — were not "found" in any exploratory sense. A Taoist monk named Wang Yuanlu stumbled upon a sealed chamber in 1900 containing tens of thousands of manuscripts, silk paintings, and printed documents dating back to the 4th century. The hoard, now known as the Library Cave, became one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, and one of the most contentious: Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot both arrived within years, purchasing enormous quantities of material for European institutions at prices Wang had no framework to evaluate.

The centenary framing on this coin dates the "discovery" to 1900, though Wang had been living at the site for years prior.