Mainland China Period

The first few years of the Republic of China, with the country still divided by warlords, was the most chaotic period in the country’s currency history. On the one hand, traditional currencies and new currencies were both in use; on the other hand, warlords minted a large number of low-quality coins and issued a torrent of uncashable banknotes. At the same time, foreign banks took the opportunity to expand the issuance of their banknotes. This chaos adversely affected national finances and ordinary people’s livelihoods.
The Central Bank of China (CBC) was established in Guangzhou in 1924. At first it was a regional bank, but in 1928 it was declared the national bank and the Nationalist Government gave it the exclusive right to issue national currency. In 1933, the government promulgated “the Silver Standard Coin Coinage Act” and also replaced the silver tael with the yuan in the new silver standard. Thus the history of the silver tael, which had dominated Chinese currency for almost a thousand years, officially came to an end.
The headquarters of the CBC was officially set up in Shanghai in 1928. While the CBC was in operation in China, it issued several kinds of national currency, such as the Customs Gold Unit note, the Legal Tender note, the Gold Yuan note, the Silver Dollar Note, the Silver Standard coin, and fractional coins. A brief introduction can be found below.