Manchukuo yuan

The Manchukuo yuan (滿洲國圓) was the official unit of currency of the Empire of Manchukuo, from June 1932 - August 1945.

The monetary unit was based on one basic pure silver patron of 23.91 grammes. It replaced the Chinese Haikwan tael, the local monetary system in common and regular use in Manchuria before the Mukden incident, as legal tender.

History

Initially bank notes and coins were produced mint by the Bank of Japan, but were later issued from the mint of the Central Bank of Manchou in the Manchukuo capital of Hsinking (now Changchun). Due to worldwide fluctuations in the price of silver during the 1930s, Manchukuo took the yuan off the silver standard in 1935 and subsequently pegged the yuan to, and later reached approximate exchange parity with, the Japanese yen. In 1940 the Manchukuo yuan was being used to measure Manchukuo exports and imports to countries that included America,

Throughout this period about half the value of the issued notes was backed by specie reserves. The notes issued were in five denominations, one hundred, ten, five and one yuan and five chiao (one-half yuan), and typically depicted Qing dynasty rulers of China on the obverse. To keep up with the inflationary pressures typically experienced by Japanese-controlled areas towards the end of World War II, a 1,000 yuan note...
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