10 Cash - Guangxu 'SHANG-TUNG'

Shantung Province was a latecomer to the provincial copper cash program, establishing its mint only after repeated pressure from Beijing to participate in the New Policies modernization drive. The SHANG-TUNG romanization — rendering the province name in an older Wade-style transliteration rather than the more phonetically consistent spellings used by some southern mints — places this issue firmly in the earliest phase of the mint's operation before standardization efforts took hold.

Y#221a distinguishes this variety from the broader Shantung copper series by specific legend arrangement. The province's output was relatively short-lived; political disruption and the death of Guangxu in 1908 curtailed production well before the dynasty itself collapsed.