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1 Tael - Guangxu Pattern
| Issuer | Shansi Province Official Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1890 |
| Type | Coin pattern |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | 山西官爐造光緒十六年 足 兩壹 紋 (Translation: Shansi official furnaces / Made in Year 16 of Guangxu Fine silver 1 Liang (Tael)) |
| Reverse description | Central motif depicts a three-legged ritual cauldron (ding) shown in elevation, filled with food offerings, representing official fiscal authority and legitimacy. The vessel rests on its three legs with the body fully rendered in period style. A complete annular legend in Chinese characters surrounds the central device, filling the field to the rim. The surrounding inscription details the coin's acceptance for multiple categories of official payment including grain taxes, customs duties, and salt levies. The overall composition is formal and symmetrical, consistent with late Qing dynasty official pattern coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Shansi (Shanxi) Province never produced silver coinage for general circulation during the Qing period — this piece exists solely as a pattern, almost certainly struck to demonstrate capability or solicit authorization from Beijing that never came. The provincial mint infrastructure across China in the 1890s was deeply uneven, and several mints struck trial pieces precisely to lobby for minting rights amid the broader push to modernize coinage following treaty-port pressures.
Kann's documentation of this type as #922 places it among a handful of northern provincial patterns with no confirmed circulating counterparts. Survivors are essentially mint-state by definition.