50 Yuan

This note belongs to the First Series Renminbi (第一套人民币), a currency that was being printed and issued even as the Chinese Civil War was still being fought. The People's Bank of China was established on 1 December 1948, and the First Series began circulating almost immediately — a deliberate act of economic consolidation ahead of military victory, not after it.

First Series notes were printed under chaotic wartime conditions across multiple facilities, with significant variation in paper quality and print registration between batches. Many denominations are scarce simply because large quantities were withdrawn and destroyed during the currency reform of 1955, when the Second Series was introduced at an exchange rate of 10,000 old yuan to 1 new yuan.