Jiaochao was the permanent paper currency issued by the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan.
Kublai Khan’s Yuan government made paper money a central part of its monetary system in China. Earlier Chinese dynasties had issued paper notes, but the Yuan state expanded their use across a large empire and attempted to make them compulsory for many transactions.
Jiaochao notes were backed by government authority rather than by a direct promise that every note could be exchanged for precious metal. Their acceptance depended heavily on state power, taxation and controls over competing forms of money.
The currency is sometimes confused with Chinese copper cash or silver ingots. Those were important forms of money, but jiaochao specifically means the paper currency used by the Yuan government.