People's Republic of China renminbi banknote series

Renminbi banknote series are the official paper currency issues released by the People's Bank of China, beginning with the first series in 1948. Five principal series are distinguished across the currency's history by their design themes, denomination structures, and dates of release. Early issues utilised industrial and agricultural motifs, whilst subsequent releases transitioned towards portraits representing national unity, the working classes, founding leaders, and ethnic minorities.

The fourth series was introduced between 1987 and 1997, bearing edition dates of 1980, 1990, or 1996. Ranging from fractional jiao values up to 100 yuan, these banknotes illustrated Chinese-style social democracy. The 100 yuan note depicted four founding figures of the People's Republic of China—Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De—whilst the 50 yuan featured an intellectual, a farmer, and an industrial worker. The remaining denominations displayed portraits of individuals from fourteen different ethnic groups. Most fourth-series notes were recalled in 2018, leaving only the smallest denominations in circulation.

Progressively introduced from 1999, the fifth series standardised obverse designs across denominations from 1 to 100 yuan, featuring a portrait of Mao Zedong by artist Liu Wenxi on every note alongside introducing a 20 yuan denomination. Issued in multiple editions dated from 1999 through to 2020, these notes integrated modern security measures including watermarks, ultraviolet fluorescent inks, security threads, colour-shifting numerals, EURion constellations, and raised printing. The reverses carry the denomination and the issuing authority's title rendered in several minority-language scripts, including Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Zhuang.