1 Chiao - Puyi Kangde - Silver pattern

Manchukuo's coin production by 1942 was almost entirely in base metals — aluminium and red composition alloys — as wartime Japan stripped the puppet state of any meaningful precious metal reserves for the broader Pacific war effort. This silver pattern exists precisely because someone in the minting hierarchy, almost certainly at the Osaka Mint which oversaw Manchukuo coinage, produced presentation-quality pieces in silver for official approval or archival purposes, while the circulating issue went out in aluminium. The approved circulating version of this type is common; the pattern is not.