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20 Yuan
| Issuer | People's Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | First Rénmínbì (1948-1949) |
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| Obverse description | A central vignette to the left presents an industrial landscape with a steam locomotive crossing a railway bridge in the foreground, factory buildings with smokestacks behind, rendered in olive-green intaglio on a finely guilloche-patterned ground. A large rosette underprint in ochre occupies the right side of the note, with the denomination characters 貳拾圓 printed in its centre. Two red seal chops appear in the lower centre, with the bank title 中國人民銀行 across the top and the Republic year inscription along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 中國人民銀行 20 1949 (Translation: People's Bank of China / 20 / 1949) |
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| Comments |
This 20 Yuan belongs to the first series issued by the newly established People's Bank of China, which began operations in December 1948 — months before the People's Republic was formally proclaimed. The notes were printed under chaotic conditions as the civil war was still being fought, with multiple printing facilities across liberated zones producing issues of varying quality.
Hyperinflation had already destroyed public confidence in paper currency; the Nationalist government's currency had collapsed so completely that the new administration's early notes were treated with skepticism. High-denomination notes from this first series circulated hard and briefly before the 1955 renminbi reform rendered the entire series obsolete, with exchange fixed at 10,000 old yuan to one new fen.