Episode 3265
Yuan Shikai coinage
Mon, 2026-Apr-13 01:03 UTC
Length - 3:19
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
The featured article for Monday, 13 April 2026, is Yuan Shikai coinage.
Beginning in 1914, silver coinage featuring a portrait of the Chinese president and military leader Yuan Shikai was minted across the Republic of China to replace the previous imperial coinage and various foreign silver coins in circulation in China. The most prominent and numerous of these coins, the Yuan Shikai dollar (also known as the "fatman dollar" by collectors, from Chinese 袁大头; yuán dàtóu; 'big head Yuan Shikai [dollars]'), remained in production long after Yuan's death in 1916. Designed by Tianjin Mint engraver Luigi Giorgi, the coin features a profile bust of Yuan wearing a military uniform on the obverse, with a wreath of grain and the denomination of one yuan on the reverse.
The dollar coins were regularly produced by various mints across China from 1914 to 1928, with a total production run exceeding a billion coins. Until 1920, all coins were dated Republican Year 3 (1914 CE) regardless of their actual year of production. Some mints produced coins featuring various three new dates during the 1920s, but these only incidentally coincided with their production date, with certain dates being usable as mint marks.
After the 1926–1928 Northern Expedition, the incipient Nationalist government halted production of the coins in favor of the memento dollar. However, regional circulation and production of the coins continued, with poorer-quality examples produced in Gansu and Communist-held areas during the 1930s. Production was curtailed by the abandonment of the silver standard in 1935, but returned in response to hyperinflation during the Chinese Civil War, including a large run of coins at Canton in 1949. The People's Republic once again produced the coin in the mid-1950s for circulation in newly annexed Tibet and rural regions of southwestern China. In total, around 1.1 billion Yuan Shikai dollars were produced from 1914 and 1954, not including local issues produced by warlords or revolutionaries.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:03 UTC on Monday, 13 April 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see Yuan Shikai coinage on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm generative Ayanda.
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