China Celebrates Year of the Dragon

The People’s Bank of China (PBC) has issued a 20 yuan commemorative legal tender banknote to celebrate 2024’s Lunar Year of the Long (Chinese Dragon), which began on 10 February. 100 million notes have been printed, with purchasers limited to 20 notes each.

The 70 x 145mm note was printed by China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM) on polymer manufactured by Beijing Banknote Printing Co Ltd, a CBPM subsidiary.

The primary colours are gold and a reddish tinge, denoting jubilation and auspiciousness. Both sides are printed in a vertical orientation. A large gold, green, and red rampant dragon dominates the front of the note. The numerical denomination is in colour-shifting green ink. The back features a trio of children doing a dragon lantern dance holding traditional lanterns, one of which is dragon shaped.

A holographic colour shifting LiveColor® security stripe appears on the front of the note, over a transparent window. When viewed at an angle, multicoloured dynamic images of the Ruyi cloud pattern (Ruyi means ‘wish comes true’), twining branches of a peony and the Chinese character for good fortune (福) can be seen.

The outline pattern of the transparent window is derived from the artistic form of Ruyi classical Chinese garden art. Within the window can be seen the above Chinese character for good fortune and the Ruyi flower The colours in the stripe change from red to gold to turquoise, with the icons in the window on the reverse of the note appearing in gold.

The Chinese zodiac cycle accommodates 12 animals, each of which is said to reflect specific human attributes. The animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.