foreign banks in gold and silver accounts. The Bank's notes were not required to be redeemable in specie. Due to worldwide fluctuations in the price of silver during the 1930s, Manchukuo took the yuan off a silver standard in 1935 and subsequently pegged the yuan to, and later reached approximate exchange parity with, the Japanese yen. The Bank initially issued approximately 150 million yuan in notes in 1932. By 1936, their aggregate value exceeded 200 million yuan, rising to 300 million in 1937, 400 million in 1938 and 620 million by the end of 1939. Throughout this period about half the value of the issued notes was backed by specie reserves. The notes issued were in five denominations, one hundred, ten, five and one yuan and five chiao (one-half yuan). To keep up with the inflationary pressures typically experienced by Japanese controlled areas towards the end of World War II, a 1,000 yuan note was issued in 1944. In 1948, after the end of World War II, approximately 12 billion yuan of Central Bank of Manchou notes were redeemed by the Tung Pei Bank. As with Chinese coinage of the time, Manchukuo's coinage was based on the decimal system, one-tenth of the yuan being called the "chiao," one-hundredth called a "fen" and one-thousandth, a "li." Under the Currency Law the Central Bank of Manchukuo was authorized to mint 1 chiao and 5 fen coins of a nickel-copper alloy; and 1 fen and 5 li coins of a copper-tin-zinc alloy. Dating system Manchukuo was established in March 1932 with Puyi assuming the title of Chief Executive of the new state using the era name of Datong (Wade-Giles: Ta-tung; 大同). Following the traditional dating system based on the year of the ruler's reign, the year 1932 became the first year of Datong . Two years later, Manchukuo was changed into an empire, with Puyi ascending the throne as Emperor of Manchukuo under the reign title, Kangde (Wade–Giles: Kang-te; 康德). Accordingly, 1934 was designated the first year of Kangde (Kang-te), while 1942 was the ninth year of Kangde (Kang-te''). References External links Economic conditions in the old Manchukuo Manchukuo Economy of Manchukuo Neoclassical architecture in China