1 Qian Bullion coinage, Hunan Branch of The Imperial Bank

The Imperial Bank of China, established in 1897 under Sheng Xuanhuai, was the Qing dynasty's first modern state bank, but its provincial branches operated with considerable autonomy — and in some cases struck their own bullion coinage independently of the central Shanghai operation. The Hunan branch issue of 1908 falls in the dynasty's final years, when currency reform efforts were actively competing with entrenched regional monetary habits built around traditional sycee silver.

Kann 971 is among the less frequently encountered provincial bank bullion pieces. The 1908 date places it just three years before the Xinhai Revolution ended Qing rule entirely.