Shantung Province entered copper cash production relatively late in the provincial machine-struck coinage movement, receiving authorization around 1904. The inclusion of Manchu script alongside Chinese characters was not universal across provincial issues of this period — its presence here reflects the Qing court's ongoing insistence on bilingual administrative symbolism even as central authority over provincial minting was rapidly eroding. Within a few years, that authority had collapsed entirely, and provinces were issuing coinage with little reference to Peking at all.
Y#221.1 and 221.2 distinguish minor die variations in the English legend spacing.
Shantung Province entered copper cash production relatively late in the provincial machine-struck coinage movement, receiving authorization around 1904. The inclusion of Manchu script alongside Chinese characters was not universal across provincial issues of this period — its presence here reflects the Qing court's ongoing insistence on bilingual administrative symbolism even as central authority over provincial minting was rapidly eroding. Within a few years, that authority had collapsed entirely, and provinces were issuing coinage with little reference to Peking at all.
Y#221.1 and 221.2 distinguish minor die variations in the English legend spacing.