2000 Yuan Pingyao

Pingyao, a walled merchant city in Shanxi province, served as the effective financial capital of Qing-dynasty China — the great draft banks (piaohao) that originated there in the early 19th century handled remittances across the entire empire before Western-style banking arrived. The People's Bank issued this piece as part of its ongoing World Heritage Site gold series, which began following UNESCO's 1997 inscription of Pingyao's ancient city center.

At 150 grams of .999 gold, mintages in this series run extremely low — typically in the hundreds rather than thousands — making secondary-market availability erratic.