1 Tael - Kwang-Shu

The Kwangtung (Guangdong) provincial tael issues of the Qing period occupy an awkward administrative position: China never fully standardized its tael weight across provinces, meaning a Kwangtung tael was legally distinct in value from a Hupeh or Fengtien tael of ostensibly the same denomination. The Canton mint, reopened with British-supplied machinery in the 1880s, produced these on modern screw presses — a deliberate modernization push by Governor-General Zhang Zhidong to undercut the market dominance of the Mexican peso in southern Chinese trade.

Kwang-Shu tael coinage saw only limited adoption; merchant guilds in Guangdong largely continued settling accounts by weight rather than by coin, which kept circulation figures low.