10 Cash - Guangxu Foo-Kien, brass

Fukien's copper cash production in the early 1900s was chronically inconsistent — the provincial mint struggled with both metal supply and equipment maintenance, leading to frequent alloy substitutions. Brass examples like this one represent those substitutions in practice, struck when copper stocks ran short rather than as a deliberate policy decision.

Y#100.2a distinguishes this variety from the more common copper strikes of the same type. Brass survivors tend to appear in better preservation, likely reflecting shorter or interrupted circulation runs tied directly to supply disruptions at the Foochow facility.