Taiwanese Yuans

Right, do you see on some 1 yuan notes are the 5 red characters? Those are only for circulation in Kinmen, an island off the coast of China but disputedly claimed by Taiwan. These were the first notes issued for that region, and only in that region since it can't be used in Taiwan and regular Taiwanese notes can't be used in Kinmen. I don't really know the value of this one, but I see some on ebay. Just search kinmen yuan.

As for the other two, it's just a regular Taiwan dollar for that time. Not much history I can tell you...

First time I see banknotes in vertical orientation... looks great with the photos!

Kinmen and Matsu... and Taiwan and a few other very small islands (I think) still controlled by the Republic of China (ROC). Tachen, was abandoned by the request of the United States.

"an island off the coast of China but disputedly claimed by Taiwan."
acutally not only Kinmen is also disputedly claimed by the People's Republic of China, but Taiwan too. Although Taiwan does have the claim to Kinmen because the ROC Army has troops stationed there, and no PLA troops.

So there were three types of overprints, Kinmen, Matsu, and Tachen. Tachen is the rarest, as by 1954 the island was abandoned and taken over by the PRC. Many banknotes were redeemed as the civilians arrived in Taiwan, thus making the banknotes very rare. Kinmen and Matsu are still in the hands of the ROC; although, up till the 1960s or 70s? the PRC stopped shelling (artillery) the islands. Today many people from the mainland visit Taiwan in the last year because of an open relation created by both leaders... but the PRC still claim Taiwan and all the possesion of the ROC. Banknotes printed today do not have overstamps of Kinmen or Matsu.

Also, there were other Chinese notes, (while the Nationalists were on the mainland) the Custom Gold Units printed by the Central Bank of China, from 1930 series to 1940, were vertical.

The blue 1 yuan 1954 note is common, but the green 1949 1 yuan Kinmen notes are harder to find than the regular issued blue note.

I am not sure... are those different note variants listed in the Krause book? I have an older version, well quite old, and I don't see it.

I see... well just the 3 variation part. I am not sure on the rest like wavy water etc. Maybe different colored paper was used, which banknotes did you see that in? I can't find it..

I have a 1 Yuan 1954 Matsu. It lists the 3 variation a flat only. Well fortunately for me, there is a 3 in the serial number and it is flat.

I also have a 1 Yuan 1954 regular issue and it has a curved 3 in the serial.

I don't see why he did it that way.. because in the value section he lists a W/O, and if you have a banknote without a 3 in the serial, then you have a note that is worth less.

Maybe you can tell by the printing factories as some may use a different stamp than another:

Between the two above notes, the Matsu was printed by the Central Printing and has a differnt serial number font than the Bank of Taiwan Printing facility...

I have a 1949 50 cent printed by the Central Printing - Taipei and it also has a different font.

But I can't really prove that statement until I have more notes to compare with serials and printing facilities.

Oh, and according to the sinonote site, the 1954 1 Yuan note above is actually not a Matsu note, but listed in the Taiwan regular 1954 series. Is that right?