Yunnan's silver coinage of this period reflects the province's awkward position straddling two monetary worlds: the entrenched tael-weight system preferred by inland merchants and the mace-and-candareens denominations being pushed by the Qing central government as part of its failed currency unification drive. The Yunnan mint, reopened with modern machinery in the 1890s largely to combat the flood of foreign silver pouring in through the Burma Road trade corridor, struck these fen-denominated pieces against considerable local commercial resistance.
The .800 fineness departs from the .890 standard common to many provincial issues — a deliberate Yunnan characteristic tied to local silver assay practices.
Yunnan's silver coinage of this period reflects the province's awkward position straddling two monetary worlds: the entrenched tael-weight system preferred by inland merchants and the mace-and-candareens denominations being pushed by the Qing central government as part of its failed currency unification drive. The Yunnan mint, reopened with modern machinery in the 1890s largely to combat the flood of foreign silver pouring in through the Burma Road trade corridor, struck these fen-denominated pieces against considerable local commercial resistance.
The .800 fineness departs from the .890 standard common to many provincial issues — a deliberate Yunnan characteristic tied to local silver assay practices.