5000 Yuan 7th issue

The seventh series of People's Bank of China notes, issued from 1955 onward, technically carried 1953 printing dates — a bureaucratic convention that masked a multi-year production and rollout process. The 5000 Yuan denomination was the highest in this series, a reflection of the severe inflation inherited from the Nationalist period, when hyperinflation had rendered small denominations functionally useless and necessitated face values that would have been unimaginable a decade earlier.

The entire first renminbi series was withdrawn in 1955 and replaced at a conversion rate of 10,000 old yuan to 1 new yuan, making this note — along with the other high denominations — obsolete almost immediately after full distribution.