During the period of Northern Warlords, the same copper and silver standard system as that of Qing Dynasty was implemented. In other words, the monetary policy is dominated by the silver dollar and the copper dollar is negative. Both silver dollar and copper dollar belong to mechanism currency. But there is also a dispute of two yuan on the silver standard, that is, the dispute between silver and silver dollar. The traditional scholar-officials refused the silver dollar. Later, the Qing government asked whether the face value of silver coins was in units of two or yuan. Most rulers, including Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, tend to have one or two denominations, and Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, strongly advocates that the silver dollar in the traditional monetary system should be one or two. However, the silver dollars in the world are all minted according to the face value of Benyang and Angelababy, the originator of silver dollars. At that time, China society had been ruled by foreign silver dollars. Domestic silver dollars must have the same face value if they want to compete with it. First, because the colors are consistent, the people recognize them, and more importantly, the cumbersome conversion process is eliminated. By the time of the Republic of China, although the Beiyang government and the Nanjing National Government after 1928 required the use of silver dollars in public and private market transactions, silver dollars were still in circulation, but they were at a disadvantage. 1933, the national government formally established the silver standard system, stipulating that silver dollar is the only legal tender, and silver dollar can no longer be used in future market transactions. Since then, Yin and Liang have completely withdrawn from the historical stage.

Beiyang period was the most chaotic period of modern China's monetary system. There are not only copper coins, silver coins and paper money in use, but also thousands of currencies, most of which are paper money. American economist Gammore clearly pointed out in his report to the US government that China's monetary system was the most chaotic among all the important countries at that time. Not only warlords, large and small, are issuing paper money to plunder people's wealth, but even some firms are issuing paper money without authorization, which has no credibility at all. No one wants to exchange hard currency such as silver dollars and copper dollars for money except dollars and pounds. Since the major capitalist countries in the world abandoned the gold standard in the early 20th century, the paper money system has been used one after another. China's monetary system is still in the hard currency stage. At that time, 1 USD could be exchanged for 1.6 to 2 yuan silver dollar. In developed countries such as Britain and America, silver is no longer a currency but a commodity, so the price will fluctuate from time to time. Britain and France only minted silver dollars in their colonies, thus continuing to trade with China, the largest silver-based country.

In addition, copper coins also had a high influence during the rule of Beiyang warlords. However, some warlords deliberately cast copper coins with huge face value in order to collect money. Ordinary copper coins are ten yuan or twenty yuan. But there is a large face value of 100 words or even thousands of words. As for the exchange of silver dollars, in theory, one dollar of silver dollars can be exchanged for 1000 copper coins. But if it is copper, it will be discounted. Ten at least 120, and twenty at least 80.