20 Cash - Guangxu Bei Yang, brass

Y#68a designates the brass variant of the Bei Yang Arsenal's 20 cash issue — distinguished from the more common copper strikes of the same type. Chihli Province operated the Bei Yang mint at Tianjin under direct Beiyang military patronage, and the brass composition here likely reflects a localized material substitution during a period when provincial mints were only loosely coordinated by the Board of Revenue in Beijing.

The 1906 issues precede the Qing dynasty's short-lived attempt at national coinage standardization under the unified度支部 system by just two years.