The Chinese Yuan is more than a single currency, it is the official base unit for a large number of former and current Chinese currencies and it is often referred to and described as the basic unit of the ‘renminbi’ which is the currency of the People’s Republic of China. Yuan and renminbi loosely equates to the terms pound and sterling work in the UK currency. The yuan is also considered an unofficial currency for other territories including Burma and Mongolia.
The yuan, sometimes known as kuai depending on the area and the dialect spoken and each yuan/kuai is divided into ten jiao and each single jiao is further broken down into ten fen. The ISO currency code for yuan is CNY and the official symbol for the yuan is the Chinese character ¥ although this symbol is also used for the Korean and Japanese currency so it is more important to keep a look out for the CNY code. The confusion around these symbols can make it a bit tricky, especially as there is another similar symbol used to indicate renminbi so it is better to stick to those ISO codes.
The History of the Chinese Yuan
The yuan does not date back as far as the huge history of China as a whole. In fact, it can only be traced back as far as the late 19th century and previous to this point it was mainly copper coins used throughout China and it had been this way since around 210BC. Paper notes were first introduced into the country in the 9th century and the earlier coins are often found in museums and collections and were circular in shape with a square hole in the middle which meant they could easily be threaded together.
It was in 1889 that the Chinese yuan was officially introduced and it was set as a parity value level with the Mexican peso. The new yuan was introduced across China and people could exchange their old coinage for yuan. The modern yuan is only divided into jiao and fen but in the first years of the currency it was also broken down into wen. The earliest Chinese coins in this currency were the 1 yuan, 1,2, 5 jiao, 5 fen and 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 wen. They also issued their first banknotes in yuan values.
The yuan found itself out of circulation in 1914 when the Republic of China was founded and the silver dollar became the national currency for many years until they realise the silver used to make the coins was worth more than the actual monetary denomination of the coins and the currency collapsed. In 1935 the legal tender in China was the ‘fabi’ but after more hyperinflation China turned back to the yuan in 1949.
Chinese Yuan Conversion Rates
Today one Chinese yuan is worth approximately £0.10 or $0.15 and conversely £1 is worth around CNY 9.28 and $1 is worth around CNY 6.50.
China’s growth as a leading market economy has seen more and more casinos willing to accept yuan and some will even accept deposits and withdrawals from native yuan accounts as well as the use of eWallets, credit and debit cards.