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20 Yuan Beijing Winter Olympics
| Issuer | People's Bank of China (中国人民银行) |
|---|---|
| Year | 2022 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Yuan (20元, 贰拾圆) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse centres on a large vignette of the National Aquatics Center ("Ice Cube"), its characteristic bubble-pattern ETFE façade rendered in blue and violet tones against an undulating guilloche background evoking snow and wind in blue and gold. A curved transparent polymer window in the form of a mountain silhouette, incorporating colour-shifting snowflake motifs, runs along the lower portion of the note as a primary security feature. The numeral "20" appears to the right of the building vignette, with the inscription "2022年" and a red seal at lower right. |
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| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | A curved transparent polymer window in the shape of a mountain silhouette at lower reverse, incorporating colour-shifting snowflake motifs that shift hue when tilted; an embedded security thread running vertically through the note. |
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| Comments |
China's first polymer banknote for general circulation, issued specifically to commemorate the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The People's Bank had produced polymer commemoratives before, but this was a notable step — polymer substrate had long been resisted by Chinese monetary authorities despite its adoption by dozens of other countries over the preceding three decades.
The transparent window, standard on polymer issues elsewhere, required China Banknote Printing and Minting to adapt production processes it had not previously deployed at this scale for circulating currency. Whether this note signals a broader shift toward polymer in China's general issue programme remains an open question.