2 Mace - Guangxu Pattern, Hu Poo, bronze

The Hu Poo mint in Beijing was the imperial government's central financial institution, distinct from the provincial mints that dominated Chinese coin production in this period. In 1903, the Board of Revenue undertook a serious effort to rationalize the currency system — pattern strikes like this one were part of that process, testing denominations and compositions before any commitment to full production. The 2 mace denomination in bronze never entered circulation; the reform program stalled under the same bureaucratic and financial pressures that plagued Qing fiscal policy in its final decade.

The "var." designation against KM#Pn292 suggests a die or compositional deviation from the primary catalogued pattern — details that remain incompletely documented in the standard references.