The Small Sword Society — a Triad-affiliated insurgent group loosely aligned with the larger Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement — seized Shanghai's Chinese walled city in September 1853 and held it for seventeen months. This cash piece was struck during that occupation as a deliberate assertion of administrative authority, the coinage functioning as much as propaganda as currency. The rebellion was crushed by combined Qing and foreign-led forces in February 1855.
Hartill 23.30 is among the more frequently encountered Small Sword issues, though the broader series remains poorly documented compared to contemporaneous Taiping rebel coinages from Nanjing.
The Small Sword Society — a Triad-affiliated insurgent group loosely aligned with the larger Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement — seized Shanghai's Chinese walled city in September 1853 and held it for seventeen months. This cash piece was struck during that occupation as a deliberate assertion of administrative authority, the coinage functioning as much as propaganda as currency. The rebellion was crushed by combined Qing and foreign-led forces in February 1855.
Hartill 23.30 is among the more frequently encountered Small Sword issues, though the broader series remains poorly documented compared to contemporaneous Taiping rebel coinages from Nanjing.