20 Fen - Guangxu 1 Mace and 4.4 Candareens

Kwangtung was the first Chinese province to operate a modern steam-powered mint, established in 1889 under Viceroy Zhang Zhidong after he imported machinery from the Birmingham Mint. This coin is among the earliest products of that facility — Zhang had to fight considerable bureaucratic resistance from Beijing, where conservative officials viewed provincial silver minting as a threat to central monetary authority. They were right to worry. Within a decade, nearly every major province had followed Kwangtung's lead, fragmenting coinage production across the empire in ways the Qing court never fully controlled.