Catalog
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| Issuer | Small Sword Society |
|---|---|
| Year | 1854-1855 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Cash (1854-1855) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese (traditional, regular script) |
| Obverse lettering | 太平通寶 (Translation: Taiping Tongbao / Universal currency of Great Peace) |
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| Additional information |
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 before Qing and French forces retook it in February 1855. This cash was struck during that occupation, one of the very few instances of a secret society producing its own official coinage on Chinese soil. The crescent and dot on the reverse are distinguishing marks that separate this issue from standard Qing production of the same legend.