Hi all. Does anyone happen to know how old Chinese yuan has to be before it is no longer valid? I have 100,500 yuan in total, made up of one note for 100,000 one for 500; both are dated 1949. I'm aware China went through super-inflation at that period, and basically used these notes to pay for our (U.S.) gold, since we'd just been taken off the gold standard and it was now a commodity. Following that history, should it not still be legal tender? I brought it to several banks around my backwoods town, and they acted like they didn't know where China was. I typed it in forex and it comes out to over $14,000 at the current exchange rates.... intriguing.... any advice? Is it still exchangeable? If not, how far back does actual valid paper money go? Thanks for any help.
Banknotes of the first yuan suffered from hyperinflation following the Second World War and were replaced in August 1948 by notes denominated in gold yuan, worth 3 million old yuan. There was no link between the gold yuan and gold metal or coins and this yuan also suffered from hyperinflation. So your yuan would be worth .0335 gold yuan In July 1949, the Nationalist Government introduced the silver yuan, which was initially worth 500 million gold yuan (Silver yuan on Chinese wikipedia). It circulated for a few months on the mainland before the end of the civil war. This silver yuan remained the de jure official currency of the Republic government on Taiwan until 2000. So now your gold yuan is worth .000000000067 silver yuan. A new yuan was introduced in 1955 at a rate of 10,000 old yuan = 1 new yuan. It is known as the renminbi yuan. Ok I am going to stop doing the math at this point and just say that the notes you have do not have the current buying power to purchase a fraction of a stick of gum Here is the good news, notes are also collectables Here is an ebay link to the nearest thing to what you have that I can find. http://cgi.ebay.com/Central-Bank-of-China-1949-Gold-Yuan-100000-AU-Ma184_W0QQitemZ270382296738QQihZ017QQcategoryZ3432QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Not only did China go through super inflation but it also went through a civil war and there was more than one issuer of notes Basicly the notes you have are only worth what a collector will pay for them and this will depend on condition etc
sorry to hear your notes values are not what you might have expected. But notes from china have a long and interesting history.... and along the way, so very cool designs
If it makes you feel better, when I started collecting coins I had 1290 in Mexican Peso's, which I thought meant 1,290.00 MXN=98.2289 USD and I was jumping for joy untill I found out that I had Old Peso's and even if I could have traded them to New Peso's (which I couln't, because even that trade happened years ago) I would be left with like fifty U.S. cents ROTFL
