A copper-nickel tael is an oddity by any measure — the tael was a unit of weight traditionally applied to silver, and Chinese monetary reformers in the late Qing period proposed it repeatedly as the basis for a unified national coinage, only to see each proposal collapse under disagreement between provincial and central authorities. No copper-nickel tael ever entered general circulation. What exists are pattern strikes, produced to demonstrate proposed specifications to officials who ultimately rejected them in favor of the yuan standard, formalized after the dynasty itself had fallen.
A copper-nickel tael is an oddity by any measure — the tael was a unit of weight traditionally applied to silver, and Chinese monetary reformers in the late Qing period proposed it repeatedly as the basis for a unified national coinage, only to see each proposal collapse under disagreement between provincial and central authorities. No copper-nickel tael ever entered general circulation. What exists are pattern strikes, produced to demonstrate proposed specifications to officials who ultimately rejected them in favor of the yuan standard, formalized after the dynasty itself had fallen.