Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Yuan
| Issuer | People's Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#843 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by three large interlocking guilloche rosette medallions arranged horizontally, with the denomination 伍佰圓 in Chinese characters centred within the middle rosette and the numeral 500 in Arabic figures within each of the flanking rosettes. The bank title 中國人民銀行 appears in a cartouche at the top, and the year 1949 is printed at the base of the central design. |
| Reverse lettering | 行銀民人國中 伍 佰 圓 500 1949 (Translation: People`s Bank of China Five Hundred Yuan) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The People's Bank of China was formally established only in December 1948, and the entire first series of Renminbi notes — including this 500 Yuan — was issued under acute wartime pressure as Communist forces swept through mainland China. Production was decentralized by necessity, with printing distributed across multiple facilities to keep pace with military advances; this accounts for the notable variation in paper quality and ink density found across surviving examples of this denomination.
Inflation under the Nationalist government had so thoroughly destroyed public confidence in paper currency that the new administration had to issue denominations this large from the outset, even as it positioned the Renminbi as a stable alternative to the collapsing Gold Yuan.