New Taiwan Dollar - History

History

The New Taiwan dollar was first issued by the Bank of Taiwan on June 15, 1949, to replace the Old Taiwan dollar at a 40,000-to-1 ratio. The first goal of the New Taiwan dollar was to end the hyperinflation that had plagued Taiwan and Mainland China due to the Chinese civil war fought in mainland China. A few months later, the ROC government under the Kuomintang (KMT) was defeated by the Chinese communists and retreated to Taiwan.

Even though the Taiwan dollar was the de facto currency of Taiwan, for years the old Chinese Nationalist yuan was still the official national currency of the Republic of China. The Chinese Nationalist yuan was also known as the fiat currency (法幣) or the silver yuán (銀元), even though it was decoupled from the value of silver during World War II. Many older statutes in ROC law have fines and fees denominated in this currency.

According to the Regulation of exchange rate between New Taiwan Dollars and the fiat currency in the ROC laws (現行法規所定貨幣單位折算新臺幣條例), the exchange rate is fixed at 3 TWD per 1 silver yuan and has never been changed despite decades of inflation. Despite the silver yuan being the primary legal tender currency, it was impossible to buy, sell, or use it, so it effectively did not exist to the public.

In July 2000, the New Taiwan dollar became the official currency of the ROC and is no longer secondary to the silver yuan. At the same time, the Central Bank of China (now known as the Central Bank of the Republic of China) began issuing New Taiwan dollar banknotes directly and the old notes issued by the Bank of Taiwan were taken out of circulation.

In the history of the currency, the exchange rate as compared to the United States dollar (USD) has varied from less than 10 TWD per USD in the mid-1950s to more than 40 TWD per 1 USD in the 1960s and about 25 TWD per 1 USD around 1992. The exchange rate as of November 2012 sits around 29.2 TWD per 1 USD.