1948年8月19日，国民政府正式颁布《币制改革法案》，要求冻结国统区所有银行业务，停止现行货币流通，发行金圆券，并以金圆券收兑民间黄金白银外币。
On August 19, 1948, the Nationalist Government formally promulgated the Currency Reform Act, which required the freezing of all banking operations in the Kuomintang controlled areas, the suspension of the current currency circulation, the issuance of gold coupons, and the exchange of private gold, silver and foreign currencies with gold coupons.
这张金元券，面额壹万元。正面中央刊写“中央银行”四字，左右是码号793397，中间和四角均有纪值“壹萬”字样，中下钤行印和总裁印两方，右边是蒋介石半身头像，周边饰花纹，由中央印制厂承印。背面用英文刊纪行名，用阿拉伯文纪值和纪发行年份“中华民国三十六年印”字样。
This gold coupon has a face value of ten thousand yuan. On the front, there is the word "Central Bank" in the central journal, and the code number is 793397 on the left and right sides. In the middle and the four corners, there is the word "10,000" in the period value. On the right side is the half-length head of Chiang Kai-shek, decorated with decorative patterns around it, and printed by the Central Printing Factory. On the back, the name of the journal is used, with the Arabic period value and the year of issue "seal of the Republic of China 36th year".
金圆券的快速贬值及造成的恶性通胀，源自政府的财政及货币政策。国民党政府无视于财力的限制，继续维持战事。政府赤字以印钞票支付，造成急剧的通胀。政府既不能自控通货的发行，只试图以违反的行政命令去维持物价和币值，至此，金元券发行量已大大超过市面流通必需量，大量的流动性过剩突破了政治力量，，没有任何支撑的“金圆券”暴跌，一捆“金圆券”换不回相同重量的大米，上海等地不少商家干脆拒收这种没有任何信用的纸币，买卖均以白米及金、银或外币交易。仅仅9个月，金元券几乎等于废纸，这在世界货币史上算是最短命的货币。百姓看着手中的如废纸金圆券，苦不堪言。
The rapid depreciation of gold coupons and the resulting hyperinflation resulted from the fiscal and monetary policies of the government. The Kuomintang government continued the war despite its financial limitations. Government deficits are paid for by printing money, causing rapid inflation. Government can not control the issue of inflation, only attempts to violate the executive order to maintain prices and currency, at this point, jinyuan securities issuance has considerably more than circulation quantity required, broke the political power, a lot of liquidity, there is no support of "gold certificate" collapsed, a bundle of "gold certificate" change not to return the same weight of rice, Many merchants in Shanghai and other places simply refused to accept this kind of paper money without any credit, trading in white rice, gold, silver or foreign currency transactions. At just nine months, the gold bond is almost worthless paper, making it one of the ephemeral currencies in the world's monetary history. The people looked at the hands of such as waste paper coupons, unbearable suffering.
1949年5月27日，人民解放军解放上海，新成立的人民政府随后宣布，从6月起停止金圆券的流通，人民政府以人民币1元兑换金元券10万元的比价把金元券全部收回并销毁，照顾了民众的利益。
After the People's Liberation Army liberated Shanghai on May 27, 1949, the newly established People's Government announced that the circulation of the gold coupons would be stopped from June, and the people's government would take back all the gold coupons and destroy them at the rate of RMB 1 yuan to RMB 100,000 yuan, taking into account the interests of the people.
解放初期，百姓们把家里的金圆券全部兑换成人民币，导致留存于市面的金圆券少之又少。再加上当今社会一些收藏家爱好收藏民国时期的纸币，这也是为什么在现在这金圆券价值那么高的原因。
In the early days of liberation, people converted all the gold coupons at home into RMB, resulting in very few gold coupons remaining in the market. In addition, nowadays some collectors like to collect paper money from the Republic of China period, which is why the value of this gold round note is so high today.