Old Taiwan dollar

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The Old Taiwan dollar (舊臺幣 or 舊台幣), sometimes called Old Taiwan yuan, was the currency of Taiwan, Republic of China from 1946 to 1949. It was issued by the Bank of Taiwan.

[edit] History of the Old Taiwan dollar

Inflation caused by the Chinese Civil War forced authorities to issue bearer's checks denominated one million dollars in 1948.

Taiwan was under Japanese colonization before 1945 due to the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895). Taiwan used Taiwan yen during this period.

In 1945, after Japan was defeated in World War II, Taiwan was returned to China, at the time ruled by the government of the Republic of China (ROC) (see Political status of Taiwan). Within a year, the ROC government resumed the duty over the Bank of Taiwan and issued Taiwan dollars (also known as Taiwan Nationalist yuan or TWN) as a "provisional" replacement for the Japanese Taiwan yen at the rate of one to one. The new banknotes were initially printed in Shanghai, and were shipped to Taipei. In the later years, the banknotes were printed in Taipei.

Due to the Chinese Civil War, Taiwan like Mainland China suffered severe inflation in the late 1940s. As inflation worsened, the government issued banknotes at higher and higher denominations, up to one million yuan, to handle the inflation on the island. Because the inflation of the Old Taiwan dollar was only a side effect of the inflation of gold yuan and silver yuan on Mainland, it had depreciated at a slower rate than the gold yuan and silver yuan. This currency was not subdivided.

The old dollar was replaced by the new dollar on June 15, 1949 at the rate of 1 new dollar = 40,000 old dollars. The ROC Nationalists were defeated by the communists in the same year and retreated to Taiwan. Inflation stabilized afterwards.

[edit] Coins

No coins were issued.

[edit] Banknotes

The denominations of the Old Taiwan dollar in circulation were

[edit] See also

• Economy of Taiwan
• History of Taiwan
• History of the Republic of China

[edit] External links

• (Chinese) (English) SinoBanknote

• Ron Wise's World Paper Money - Taiwan ^{Mirror site}
• Tables of Modern Monetary Systems by Kurt Schuler - Asia ^{Mirror site}
• The Global History of Currencies - Taiwan
• Global Financial Data data series - Taiwan Dollar
• Global Financial Data currency histories table ( Microsoft Excel format)
• Currency Issuance — Central Bank of China
• Virginia Sheng, "Notes from a Small Island", Taipei Review, September 1, 2000
• Chuang Chi-ting, "Legislator pans new bank notes", Taipei Times, February 17, 2001
• The Taiwanese hyperinflation and stabilization of 1945 - 1952