Quelpartian siang

Work in progressThis page is a work in progress. Sections may be incomplete or blank, images and sources may be needed, and so on.Contact the main editor the page, whom you can find in the the page history, if you wish to make major changes.
The **Quelpartian siang** (Quelpartian: *Reng-Koer siang* or *Reng-Siang*; Al-tseua: 榮國圓; sign: Sg; ISO code: **QPS**) was the national currency of Quelpart from 1948 to 1954. It was subdivided into 100 *tsah* (占), usually translated as cents, or 10 *keok* (角), translated as dimes. Due to inflation caused by the Rebellion of the Three Banners and the Japanese Civil War, it was replaced by the New Quelpartian siang on September 1, 1954.

## Etymology

*Siang* derives from the Quelpartian word 圓 (*suen, siang*), which borrows its phonetic reading from Chinese yuan, similar to the Japanese yen. Originally, the Chinese had traded silver in mass called sycees, and when Spanish and Mexican silver coins arrived from the Philippines, the Chinese called them "silver rounds" (Chinese: 銀圓; pinyin: yínyuán) for their circular shapes. The coins and the name also appeared in Japan, and in turn Quelpart when it was colonized by them.

## History

In December 1945, Lee Keuan-De consulted with the US military administration about the creation of a new Quelpartian currency, possibly modeled after the Philippine peso. As his influence grew, he consulted with the other members of the Phoenix Club and planned the national financial system. Initially, the proposed names were the dollar, the peso, the *siang*, and the *kuon* (meaning "crown", after the Danish krone). *Siang* was chosen and a peg of USD 1.00 = QPS 2.00 was established. The currency entered into use on October 8, 1948, the same day as the inauguration of Lee as president following the 1948 Quelpartian presidential election.

The outbreak of the Rebellion of the Three Banners led to worries that the

At the same time, however, the United States began relying more on Quelpart (alongside the Republic of Japan) to procure equipment and supplies for the war because the logistics of shipping from the States soon became a significant problem for the military. The demand stimulated the economy, which . Despite the outbreak of the Japanese Civil War in 1952, inflation slowed, as characterized by Lee's famous "Island of Stability" speech. The siang was again devalued to USD 1.00 = QPS 11.60 in 1953.

On December 1, 1954, the Council of National Development announced that the siang would be replaced by the New Quelpartian siang in the following year, at a rate of QPS 10.00 = QPN 1.00. People were asked to exchange their currency as soon as possible. The old siang was officially demonetized on September 1, 1955, and the new siang became the country's sole legal tender.

## Banknotes

No coins were produced for the Quelpartian siang, as the Mint of Trung Chang was still under construction when the siang was introduced in 1948, and when it finished construction in 1952, the Japanese Civil War was underway and imported metals were either used for the military or for keeping local industries afloat. Instead, all denominations were printed under banknotes.

In 1948, the first series of banknotes were printed:

in denominations of 1t, 5t, 10t, 25t, 50t, Sg 1, Sg 5, Sg 10, and Sg 50. These were colored brown, yellow, orange, light red, light blue, dark green,