經過清末民初一系列幣制改革,銅元的官方地位經歷了輔制錢而行、與制錢并重、超越制錢被設定為輔幣、可由制錢熔化改鑄等階段的轉變。但銅元是一種面值高于其含銅量價值的不足值貨幣,因政府對銅元幣值的維護在城鄉之間存在巨大差異,銅元流通出現了城市地區壅滯、內地農村拒斥的城鄉貨幣分流現象,加劇了銅元危機。一戰期間,在北洋政府平市官錢局、造幣廠、煉銅廠,尤其是日本占領青島后日商所雇中國商民的多重夾擊下,華北農村制錢流失殆盡,銅元流通量明顯增加。一戰后,銅元全面取代制錢成為華北主體小額通貨與市場折價基準,以"銀兩—制錢"為核心的傳統城鄉貨幣折價體系,亦轉變為以"銀元—銅元"為主的新貨幣體系,這對此后的城鄉貿易、農民經濟及農村金融產生了深遠影響。可見幣制改革的制度安排與社會實踐之間存在著巨大張力,而日本在華勢力成為影響中國近代幣制變遷的重要外因。

After a series of currency system reforms in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the offi cial status of copper coins transformed from being an auxiliary for copper cash, to being equal to copper cash, to surpassing copper cash as the subsidiary currency, and to being melted into a minted currency by copper cash. But the copper coin was an undervalued currency with a face value higher than the value of the copper it contained. Because the government’s maintenance of the value of the copper coin varied greatly between urban and rural areas, the circulation of copper coins was well banked in urban areas but rejected in rural areas, which aggravated copper coin crises. During the First World War, the Market Stabilization Currency Bureau, mints, copper smelters of the Beiyang government and, in particular, Chinese merchants hired by the Japanese businessmen after Japanese occupation of Qingdao, caused the copper cash in the northern Chinese countryside to drain away, and the circulation of copper coins thus increased signifi cantly. After the First World War, copper coins replaced copper cash as the principal small currency and the benchmark of market in North China. As a result, the traditional urban–rural monetary system centered on "silver tael–copper cash" also transformed into a new "silver dollar–copper coin" system. It can be seen that there was a great tension between institutional currency system reforms and social practices; in addition, the Japanese invasion force became an important external cause of changes to the currency system in modern China.