Taiwan's coinage history has been influenced by the Spanish American silver dollar, imported through the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. This dollar shaped the yuan and dollar currencies in China and the Japanese yen. In Taiwan, the Taiwanese yen was introduced in 1895 during Japanese rule, followed by the Old Taiwan Dollar in 1946 and the New Taiwan Dollar (TWD) in 1949, which remains in use today.
Rarely used coins today include the ½ cent, 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, and the NT$20 coins, which have largely fallen out of circulation due to inflation and changing monetary practices.
Frequently used coins are the NT$1, NT$5, NT$10, and NT$50 coins. The 1 dollar coins are made of nickel-clad steel, the 5 and 10 NT dollar coin is composed of copper-nickel, and the 50 NT dollar coin is made of aluminium bronze. These coins often display important Taiwanese symbols, such as national figures Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek.