20 Fen - Guangxu

Kirin Province operated one of the more idiosyncratic minting programs in late Qing China, producing silver coinage on non-standard weight bases that diverged from the central government's preferred tael and mace system. The Kirin mint sourced much of its silver from local trade networks connected to the Manchurian interior, and its output was intended primarily to displace the Mexican and Japanese silver coins that dominated commercial circulation in the northeast at the turn of the century.

Y#181a designates the variety with Manchu script, distinguishing it from related Kirin issues of the same period that omit it.