5000 Yuan

This note belongs to the first series (第一套人民币) issued by the People's Bank of China, which was established only in December 1948 — meaning the entire first series was produced under wartime conditions while the Communist forces were still fighting Nationalist troops for control of the mainland. Printing was decentralized across several facilities, and paper and ink quality varied noticeably between printings, which is why condition and color consistency can differ between ostensibly identical notes.

The first series was completely withdrawn from circulation in 1955 when the second series was introduced at a conversion rate of 10,000 old yuan to 1 new yuan — making every high-denomination note from this period essentially a document of hyperinflationary collapse inherited from the late Republic.