10 Cash - Xianfeng Zhongbao, Boo-su, large type

The Xianfeng reign (1851–1861) was financially catastrophic for the Qing court — the Taiping Rebellion had severed revenues from the Yangtze delta, the treasury was effectively insolvent, and conventional copper cash could not be produced in sufficient quantities to meet state expenditures. The response was an emergency proliferation of high-denomination cash, including this 10 Cash piece, minted at Suzhou under both the Board of Revenue and Board of Works authorities simultaneously — an administrative redundancy that itself signals how desperate the situation had become.

The large type designation distinguishes this from the several size reductions that followed within just a year or two as brass supplies tightened further.