2000 Yuan Millennium of China's Paper Currency

China's claim to the invention of paper money rests on the jiaozi, first issued by private merchants in Sichuan during the late Tang dynasty and subsequently monopolized by the Song state around 1024 AD — making 2024 the nominal thousand-year mark the coin commemorates. The Song government's own management of paper currency was, historically, catastrophic: successive dynasties expanded issuance without reserve backing until hyperinflationary collapse became a recurring cycle, a pattern Marco Polo observed firsthand under the Yuan.

The 150-gram format places this among the heavier single issues in the People's Bank's commemorative gold program.