10 Fen - Guangxu 7.3 Candareens, pattern, copper

This is among the earliest Western-style machine-struck pattern pieces produced in China, predating the Kwangtung Mint's main copper series by several years. The mint was established with equipment imported from the Birmingham firm of Ralph Heaton & Sons, and early trial strikings like this one were part of the process of calibrating both the machinery and the monetary specifications before provincial authorities and the Qing court approved full production.

The "7.3 candareens" weight standard was eventually abandoned in favor of different denominations for the commercial coinage that followed.