20 Cash - Xuantong Pattern, copper

Produced in the final months of the Qing dynasty, this pattern was struck as the imperial government scrambled to modernize and centralize coin production — a project rendered immediately moot by the Wuchang Uprising of October 1911. Xuantong, the child emperor Puyi, was barely six years old when these trial pieces were being evaluated.

Hsu#32 documents a small survivor pool; patterns from this period were never approved for circulation, and most were either melted or dispersed as the dynasty collapsed within weeks of their striking.