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50 Yuan Foreign Exchange Certificate
| Issuer | Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1979 |
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| Value | 50 Yuan |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of Elephant Trunk Hill (象鼻山) in Guilin, with small boats on the Li River in the foreground, printed in dark red-brown intaglio. Left panel carries an intricate guilloche rosette underprint in red and gold tones, with the denomination 伍拾圓 in bold red characters below. The issuer title 中國銀行 and certificate legend 外匯兌換券 appear at top, with the date 一九七九年 in a cartouche along the lower border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 50 BANK OF CHINA FOREIGN EXCHANGE CERTIFICATE 本券的元与人民币元等值。 本券只限在中国境內指定的范围使用。不得挂失。 The yuan expressed in this certificate is equivalent in value to the Renminbi yuan. This certificate can only be used within China at designated places. No request to register its loss will be accepted by the Bank. FIFTY YUAN |
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Foreign Exchange Certificates were introduced by the People's Republic of China in 1979 as a parallel currency — foreigners, overseas Chinese, and diplomats were required to exchange hard currency for FECs rather than renminbi, effectively creating a two-tier monetary system that kept foreign exchange centralized under state control. The 50 Yuan denomination sat near the top of the FEC range and was large enough that it rarely saw heavy daily transactional use among individual visitors.
A thriving black market eventually developed, with Chinese citizens paying premiums above face value to acquire FECs — they unlocked access to Friendship Stores and imported goods that renminbi simply could not buy. The system was abolished in 1994 as China moved toward a unified exchange rate, after which unspent certificates were theoretically redeemable but many were not. The 1979 series was the first issued, predating the later 1988 redesign.