Yuan (currency)
The yuan (/juːˈɑːn, -æn/ yoo-A(H)N; sign: ¥; Chinese: 圓/元; pinyin: yuán; [ɥæ̌n] ⓘ) is the base unit of a number of former and present-day currencies throughout China.
Today, the term "yuan" usually refers to the primary unit of account of the renminbi (RMB), the currency of the People's Republic of China.
It is also used as a synonym of that currency, especially in international contexts – the ISO 4217 standard code for renminbi is CNY, an abbreviation of "Chinese yuan".
(A similar case is the use of the terms sterling to designate British currency and pound for the unit of account.)
When used in English in the context of the modern foreign exchange market, the Chinese yuan (CNY) refers to the renminbi (RMB), which is the official currency used in mainland China.
In Standard (Mandarin) Chinese, 圓 / 圆 yuán literally means "round".
The word is usually written with the Chinese character 元, literally meaning "beginning" but used as an abbreviation for 圓.
The unit of a New Taiwan dollar is also referred to in Standard Chinese as yuán and written as 元 or 圓.
This was effectively the world's first international currency, beginning to circulate widely in east and southeast Asia in the late 18th century due to Spanish presence in the region, principally the Philippines and Guam.
The earliest issues were silver coins produced at the Guangdong mint, known in the West at the time as Canton, and transliterated as Kwangtung, in denominations of 5 cents, 1, 2 and 5 jiao and 1 yuan.
In 1917, the warlord in control of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, introduced a new currency, known as the Fengtien yuan or dollar, for use in the Three Eastern Provinces.
It was valued at 1.2 yuan in the earlier (and still circulating) "small money" banknotes and was initially set equal to the Japanese yen.
An exceptionally large number of banknotes were issued during the Republican era (1911–1949) by provincial banks (both Nationalist and Communist).
Most of the banknotes issued for use throughout the country bore the words "National Currency", as did some of the provincial banks.
The banknotes issued in its place were known as fabi (Chinese: 法幣; pinyin: fǎbì) or "Legal tender".
In the north, the "Provisional Government of the Republic of China" (Chinese: 中華民國臨時政府) based in Peking (Beijing) established the Federal Reserve Bank of China (Chinese: 中國聯合準備銀行; pinyin: Zhōngguó liánhé zhǔnbèi yínháng).
The Japanese decreed the exchange rates between the various banks' issues and those of the Nationalists but the banknotes circulated with varying degrees of acceptance among the Chinese population.
Between 1930 and 1948, banknotes were also issued by the Central Bank of China denominated in customs gold units.
In 1948, the Central Bank of China issued notes (some dated 1945 and 1946) in denominations of 1, 2 and 5 jiao, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 yuan.
The Central Bank of China issued notes in denominations of 1 and 5 fen, 1, 2 and 5 jiao, 1, 5 and 10 yuan.
This silver yuan remained the de jure official currency of the Republic government in Taiwan until 2000.
After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Central Bank of China issued a separate currency in the northeast to replace those issued by the puppet banks—north-eastern yuan (Chinese: 東北九省流通券; pinyin: Dōngběi jiǔ shěng liútōngquàn).
The Chinese Soviet Republic issued copper 1 and 5 fen and silver 2 jiao and 1 yuan coins.
[citation needed] As the People's Liberation Army took control of most of China, they introduced a new currency, in banknote form only, denominated in yuan.
[5] In the Republic of China, the common English name is the "New Taiwan dollar" but banknotes issued between 1949 and 1956 used "yuan" as the transliteration.
