Renminbi is the currency of the People’s Republic of China. The following is the definition of Renminbi from the Encyclopedia Britannica.
What does Renminbi mean?
Renminbi, (Chinese: “people’s money”) also called yuan, monetary unit of China. One renminbi (yuan) is divided into 100 fen or 10 jiao.
The People’s Bank of China has exclusive authority to issue currency. Banknotes are issued in denominations from 1 fen to 100 renminbi. The obverse of some banknotes contains images of communist leaders, such as Mao Zedong, leader of China’s communist revolution, whose likeness is pictured on several notes; lower denominations often contain images of people dressed in traditional attire. The reverse side of most coins, which range in denominations from 1 fen to 1 renminbi, contains images of historic buildings and the country’s diverse landscape. Renminbi became the official name of the currency in 1969.
As China became one of the world’s preeminent centres of finance and trade in the early 21st century, the renminbi rose as a global currency. In recognition of the renminbi’s elevated status, in November 2015 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that the renminbi was to become one of its reserve currencies. Thus, it would join the U.S. dollar, the euro, the British pound sterling, and the Japanese yen as one of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights currencies used for intergovernmental loans. The renminbi’s status change took effect in late 2016.
Extended Reading: What is the difference between Renminbi, Yuan, RMB and CNY?
One Chinese yuan can be divided into 10 jiao, or into 100 fen. Today, the largest banknote is 100 yuan, followed by 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan, 5 yuan, and 1 yuan. One yuan can be further divided into jiao and fen. There are 10 jiao in a yuan (like dimes in a dollar) and 10 fen in a jiao. Since 1948, the People’s Bank of China (the central bank of China) has issued five sets of Renminbi. The first Renminbi banknote had a denomination of 50 Yuan. The largest denomination of Renminbi in history was 50,000 yuan.
You can find sample images and information about each Renminbi, banknote and coin, on the dedicated Renminbi website (RenMin.be). https://RenMin.be, which is pronounced the same as Renminbi.
The Complete List of Renminbi (RMB)
The first set of Renminbi (from 1948)
The second set of Renminbi (from 1955)
The third set of Renminbi (from 1962)
The fourth set of Renminbi (from 1987)
The fifth set of Renminbi (from 2000)
All of Renminbi Coins
All of Renminbi Commemorative Banknotes
All of Renminbi Commemorative Coins
中文版：人民币是什么？
