On February 12, 1912, Yuan Shikai forced Puyi to sign an abdication edict, thus destroying the Qing Dynasty and ending more than 2,000 years of feudal rule in China. Three days later, Yuan Shikai was elected as the provisional president, and 3 years later, with his growing desire, he declared himself emperor and changed the name of the country to the Chinese Empire, known in history as the "Hongxian Imperial System".
As soon as this matter came out, it immediately caused a national sensation, and for a while, the people complained, and the wave of opposition was even higher than the wave, so only 83 days later, Yuan Shikai announced his resignation and abolished the imperial system, and it was not long before Yuan Shikai died of uremia. However, it is "strange" that after Yuan Shikai's death, the currency "Yuan Datou" with his portrait printed on it is still issued, and has been used for 37 years, and has issued a total of 750 million pieces.
"Yuan Datou" is a colloquial colloquial name for coins printed with Yuan Shikai's head, in fact, its full name is "Yuan Shikai's portrait back Jiahe silver coin". After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Shikai soon became the president, and the first thing he did after becoming president was to unify the currency.
As we all know, in the late Qing Dynasty, social turmoil, we suffered from the aggression of various powers, so that countless foreign currencies poured into China, the number of up to more than a hundred kinds, they are different specifications, cumbersome conversion, to the people's lives brought great inconvenience, based on this situation, Yuan Shikai decided to uniformly mint the new national currency, since to mint new coins, it is better to "advertise" for themselves by the way, so Yuan Shikai printed his own portrait on the coin surface, "Yuan Datou" was born.
In February of the third year of the Republic of China (1914), Yuan Shikai, as the president of the Republic of China, promulgated the "National Currency Regulations" and the "Implementation Rules of the National Currency Regulations", which clearly stipulated that the minting and issuance rights of coins belonged to the Republic of China government, and named the "Kuping pure silver six dollars and four quarters and eight cents as the price unit, named yuan", the specified denominations are 4 kinds, named one yuan, middle circle (five corners), two corners, one corner, and now the more common one yuan denomination on the market.
Because the "Yuan Datou" coin is of good color and sufficient weight (89% silver content, 10% copper content, 1% tin content, which is the currency with the most silver content in that year), the novel pattern and the regular currency type, it was quickly recognized and accepted by the people, and they took the initiative to use "Yuan Datou", and soon, it became the main currency in the field of circulation in China.
Seeing that everyone was so satisfied with their "Yuan Datou", Yuan Shikai immediately ordered the major mints to work overtime to produce "Yuan Datou", according to the data, only the Nanjing Mint produced 379 million "Yuan Datou" in 2 years, which shows its momentum.
Because the influence of "Yuan Datou" is too great, so until The death of Yuan Shikai, the major mints are still producing "Yuan Datou", which lasted until 1951, that is, it was used for 37 years, with a total issuance of 750 million pieces, it is reported that after the old Jiang established the Nanjing government, he wanted to replace "Yuan Datou" with silver coins printed with his own head, and everyone did not buy it at all. It is not an exaggeration to say that "Yuan Datou" is the most widely circulated and influential currency in modern Chinese society.
Today, "Yuan Datou" has gradually disappeared in our field of vision, most of which are accepted by the bank, so there are not many left in the folk, and the "Yuan Datou" that can be completely preserved, the value is naturally rising, and now the currency collection community respects it as the "treasure of the silver dollar", it is reported that the "Yuan Datou" issued by Gansu Minting in that year, the market price has been as high as 5,000 yuan / piece, which is really amazing. Have you readers and friends ever seen "Yuan Datou"? What do you think of the quality?