Old Taiwan dollar

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Old Taiwan dollar
舊臺幣 (Chinese)
User(s) Taiwan (province of Republic of China)
Symbol TW$
Coins None
Banknotes 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10 000, 100 000 dollars
Central bank Bank of Taiwan
Website www.bot.com.tw
Printer China Engraving and Printing Works
Website www.cepp.gov.tw
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

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.

Contents

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

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.

No coins were issued.

The denominations of the Old Taiwan dollar in circulation were

Horizontal Style Banknotes
Value Dimensions Main Color Description Date of
Obverse Reverse printing issue
1 dollar 130 x 70 mm Blue Sun Yat-sen, Bank of Taiwan, map of Taiwan Naval Battle Against the Dutch 1946 May 22, 1946
5 dollars 135 x 73 mm Red
10 dollars 141 x 77 mm Green-Gray
50 dollars 144 x 77 mm Brown September 1, 1946
100 dollars 154 x 82 mm Green
500 dollars 158 x 84 mm Red May 17, 1948
100 dollars 154 x 81 mm Green 1947 February 1, 1948
1000 dollars 158 x 86 mm Blue-Gray 1948 May 17, 1948
1000 dollars Sun Yat-sen, Bank of Taiwan, map of Taiwan, Sugarcane August 17, 1948
10 000 dollars 160 x 86 mm Dark Green December 11, 1948
10 000 dollars 143 x 67 mm Red Sun Yat-sen, map of Taiwan Bank of Taiwan 1949 May 17, 1949
100 000 dollars 146 x 63 mm Red Never
Vertical Style Bearer's Checks
5000 dollars 60 x 147 mm Orange Bank of Taiwan None (unifaced) None May 3, 1948
10 000 dollars 61 x 150 mm Blue June 1, 1948
100 000 dollars Red September 3, 1948
1 000 000 dollars Red-Brown December, 1948


Preceded by:
Taiwan yen
Reason: Administration of Taiwan transferred to Republic of China
Ratio: at par
Currency of Province of Taiwan of the Republic of China
19461949
Note: Taiwan dollar was initially intended to be a temporary and local currency
Succeeded by:
New Taiwan dollar
Reason: inflation
Ratio: 1 new dollar = 40,000 old dollars
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