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20 Coppers
| Issuer | Ministry of Finance, Pingshi Official Money Bureau (財政部平市官錢局) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Blue intaglio-printed note with an elaborate guilloche underprint throughout. At centre, a large ornate vignette frames the Chinese denomination 貳枚 (Twenty Coppers, 當拾銅元) in bold characters, flanked by two oval vignettes: the left showing the Summer Palace tower, the right the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. The issuer's title 財政部平市官錢局 appears in a decorative cartouche at top centre, with red serial number placeholders at left and right and red chop seals at lower corners. Marginal inscriptions in Chinese appear along the left and right borders, and the date 民國九年七月 (July, Year 9 of the Republic) is printed in a panel at the foot. The imprint 美國鈔鈕公司 (American Bank Note Company) appears below the lower border. This example is a Specimen, punch-cancelled with two holes and overprinted SPECIMEN in red diagonal letters. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Brown and blue bicolour intaglio print on plain paper. The centre of the reverse is dominated by a large circular guilloche medallion bearing the bold numeral 20, surrounded by an ornate starburst of interlocking lathe-work. A horizontal band across the middle carries the English legend TWENTY COPPER COINS flanked by the numerals 20 at each side. The issuer's title 財政部平市官錢局 arcs in Chinese characters around the upper portion of the central medallion. Decorative scroll and foliate corner ornaments in blue frame the composition at all four corners, with Chinese characters in each. The printer's imprint AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY. appears at the foot below the lower border. This example is punch-cancelled with two holes. |
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| Comments |
The Pingshi Official Money Bureau was a Beijing-based institution operating under the Beiyang government's Ministry of Finance, tasked with stabilizing the chaotic local copper cash market that had plagued the capital for years. Copper-denomination notes of this type were issued specifically to substitute for the low-value copper coins chronically hoarded or refused by the public — a persistent problem in northern China during the early Republic period.
American Bank Note Company held a substantial share of Chinese government printing contracts during this period, and the quality of intaglio work on these small-denomination issues was often considerably finer than the notes' purchasing power warranted.