Manchukuo's wartime coinage collapsed into fiber composition by 1944 as Japanese metal requisitioning stripped the puppet state's mints of any viable alloy. This particular issue — a rubber-magnesite composite — represents one of the most desperate monetary improvisations of the Pacific War. The material was notoriously unstable, degrading rapidly in humid Manchurian conditions, which is precisely why survivors in any condition are genuinely scarce.
Puyi, installed as Kangde Emperor in 1934 under direct Kwantung Army supervision, had no meaningful role in these monetary decisions. Japan's wartime resource extraction had by this point reduced Manchukuo's institutional independence to a formality on paper.
Manchukuo's wartime coinage collapsed into fiber composition by 1944 as Japanese metal requisitioning stripped the puppet state's mints of any viable alloy. This particular issue — a rubber-magnesite composite — represents one of the most desperate monetary improvisations of the Pacific War. The material was notoriously unstable, degrading rapidly in humid Manchurian conditions, which is precisely why survivors in any condition are genuinely scarce.
Puyi, installed as Kangde Emperor in 1934 under direct Kwantung Army supervision, had no meaningful role in these monetary decisions. Japan's wartime resource extraction had by this point reduced Manchukuo's institutional independence to a formality on paper.