1/4 Sho - In the name of Xuantong, 1908-1912

Tibet's copper coinage of this period was minted under nominal Qing suzerainty, with the Xuantong reign title used as a political formality rather than any reflection of actual Chinese administrative control over the plateau. The Thirteenth Dalai Lama had fled to Mongolia in 1904 following the Younghusband Expedition, and the Tibetan mint operated through years of compounding political crisis — Chinese invasion in 1910, the Dalai Lama's second flight (this time to British India), and the eventual collapse of Qing authority in 1912.

Striking quality on this type is notoriously inconsistent, a product of hand-operated local minting rather than any mechanized process.