10 Cash - Guangxu Zhongbao, Boo-yuwan, type A

The Boo-yuwan mint — the Board of Revenue mint in Beijing — produced this issue during the Tongzhi-to-Guangxu transitional years, a period when the Qing central government was attempting to reassert control over a cash coinage system that had fragmented badly during the Taiping Rebellion. Provincial mints had proliferated, weights had collapsed, and the copper supply was chronically short. Board of Revenue pieces were intended to set a standard; whether they succeeded is another matter.

The "type A" designation in Hartill reflects die and calligraphic distinctions among Boo-yuwan output that remain an active area of specialist study.