Kwangtung was the first provincial mint in China to adopt Western steam-powered coining presses, importing machinery from the Birmingham Mint in the late 1880s at the direction of Governor-General Zhang Zhidong. The 20 fen denomination was part of that initial modernization push — an attempt to displace the crude cast cash coins and foreign trade dollars that dominated southern Chinese commerce simultaneously.
Kann#28 encompasses a long run with meaningful die variations across the eighteen-year span, and specimens struck closer to 1908 were issued under the shadow of the dying Guangxu Emperor, who was almost certainly poisoned the day before the Empress Dowager Cixi herself died.
Kwangtung was the first provincial mint in China to adopt Western steam-powered coining presses, importing machinery from the Birmingham Mint in the late 1880s at the direction of Governor-General Zhang Zhidong. The 20 fen denomination was part of that initial modernization push — an attempt to displace the crude cast cash coins and foreign trade dollars that dominated southern Chinese commerce simultaneously.
Kann#28 encompasses a long run with meaningful die variations across the eighteen-year span, and specimens struck closer to 1908 were issued under the shadow of the dying Guangxu Emperor, who was almost certainly poisoned the day before the Empress Dowager Cixi herself died.