Datou was one of the main currencies in circulation during the Republic of China. "Yuan Datou" is the common name of Yuan Shikai's series of coins. To be precise, it is called "Yuan Shikai's elephant carrying golden harvest silver coins". In order to rectify the monetary system and draw a silver coin, the Beiyang government promulgated Article 13 of the National Monetary Regulations in February of the third year of the Republic of China (19 14) and decided to implement the silver standard system.
The National Monetary Regulations stipulates: "Cooper's pure silver is priced at 648 cents, hence the name Yuan", "One silver coin, with a total weight of 72 cents, 89 silver coins and one copper coin" and "there is no limit to the number of silver coins used", that is, one silver coin is the standard lending currency with unlimited legal compensation.
According to this regulation, in February of 19 14, 15, 19 15, a silver coin was successively minted by Mint General Factory and Jiangnan Mint, and the face of the coin was engraved with Yuan Shikai's head, commonly known as Yuan Tou Coin or Yuan Datou. Due to the long casting time of Yuan Datou Silver Dollar and more mints involved in the casting, there are more versions of Yuan Datou Silver Dollar.
On the top (front) of Yuan Datou's common currency is Yuan Shikai's left quintile, engraved with traditional Chinese characters of "Republic of China" or "Republic of China", which has high historical and cultural research value and implies the ideological hope of "democracy, * * harmony, constitutionalism and constitutional monarchy".