Evolution of RMB (Pure Speculation)
RMB is, literally, people's currency. But somehow...the plural has gradually declined to the singular...
I just can't figure out the mentality behind this change, and it seems that chances are pretty slim that I might find an explanation anytime soon.
Anyways...
The First Series:
Featuring agricultural and industrial sites, and famous Chinese landscapes/sceneries, descriptive of the back then China, and fittingly ..... Communist.
For samples see:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%80%E5%A5%97%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%B8%81&variant=zh-cn
The Second Series:
Distributed during the firsts of the Five-Year Plans.
More agricultural and industrial themes, in addition to some noteworthy technological achievements, portraits of a factory worker and a farmer, and a coming-together of different ethnicities.
The five yuan bill.
Whoa...I've seen..and used...a lot of these second series bills. I think I used to have one that dated back to the 60's. Hmm...heard it's worth a small fortune on the market today~~And yes, I will, of course, auction it for personal profit. Haha, such was the way that my education had indoctrinated me!
The Third Series:
hmm...it circulated for around 4 decades and yet I've never even seen one! Or my goldfish memory has failed me yet again....>3
Anyways...this one presents the sort of same themes as before, and because I feel no real connection to this series, I'll just post the wiki link here.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%89%E5%A5%97%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%B8%81&variant=zh-cn
and Ah..The Fooourth Series:
These have taken out the agricultural and industrial themes, which were substituted with the portraits of people of different ethnicities. The awesome landscapes remain.
The one hundred bill has the profiles (counting from the front) of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De, the four mega idols of prc (and from what I read on some Chinese website - the four most handsome men in whole of China. See this?! This is what you Western free marketers did to our young minds!) .
Personal opinion -- the most artistically well-rendered series so far.
10 cents bill.
50 yuan bill. (from left: intellectual, farmer, worker)
100 yuan bill. (you know who they are, or shame on you)
They all look superbly nice~ for more (hehe...endure it), check here:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E7%AC%AC%E5%9B%9B%E5%A5%97%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%B8%81&variant=zh-cn
Alternatively, all these samples can most certainly all be found at the People's Bank of China wesite...I just never bothered to go.
The Fifth Series:
Yep, where things got interesting.
Here's the summary that I found on wikipedia..
The pictures are amazingly uniform looking, except the colour changes. You put them together and you'll probably get a little money-rainbow. So no point posting here.
Banknote5th Series, Second (2005) EditionLink (Chinese)ValueDimensionsColorObverseReversePrinted DateIssued DateWatermark[6]¥5135 × 63 mmPurpleMao Zedong and NarcissusMount Tai2005August 31, 2005Narcissus[7]¥10140 × 70 mmBlueMao Zedong and RoseThree Gorges of the Yangtze RiverRose[8]¥20145 × 70 mmBrownMao Zedong and LotusScenery of GuilinLotus[9]¥50150 × 70 mmGreenMao Zedong and ChrysanthemumPotala PalaceMao Zedong[10]¥100155 × 77 mmRedMao Zedong and Peony Bauhinia ?Great Hall of the People
Yep... the population of China has just somehow conveniently reduced to "1". Maybe soon the currency will be renamed to Mao Bi XD. And yeah...population control is THAT easy. Kudos.
Still, I can't figure why this happened. If PBC ever sees this, could you guys pleeeaase tell me WHY? And I might just promptly delete this all too pointless entry.