½ Yuan - Yuan Shikai

Yuan Shikai coins are a persistent oddity in modern Chinese numismatics — the original silver dollars bearing his portrait were struck from 1914 onward and became the dominant trade coinage of Republican China, widely trusted precisely because of their consistent silver content. What this piece is not is one of those. The People's Republic issued restrike and commemorative pieces referencing the Yuan Shikai dollar types decades later, and copper-nickel plated steel at this weight places it firmly outside any original minting program.

Collectors should be clear-eyed: this is a commemorative or novelty issue, not a relic of the Republican monetary system.