½ yuan / 3 mace 6 candareens Yunnan Province

By 1932, Yunnan Province operated with considerable autonomy under warlord Long Yun, and provincial coinage functioned as much as a political statement as a circulating medium. This issue is silver-plated base metal rather than solid silver — a deliberate cost-saving measure that became increasingly common across Chinese provincial mints as silver reserves tightened during the global depression. Genuine solid-silver examples of earlier Yunnan provincial types exist for comparison, making the plating on this issue straightforward to identify on worn surfaces where base metal shows through.