1 Yuan / 1 Dollar - Xuantong Pattern, short-whiskered dragon, ending right

Produced in the final year of the Qing dynasty, this pattern was struck as the imperial government attempted to standardize coinage across China's notoriously fragmented provincial mint system — a reform project that the 1911 Xinhai Revolution made permanently moot. The "short-whiskered" dragon varieties exist because multiple dies were prepared and evaluated but never selected for mass production, leaving survivors as trial pieces rather than circulating currency.

The Xuantong Emperor, better known as Puyi, was six years old when these patterns were being considered.