5 Cash - Guangxu

Szechuan's provincial mint at Chengdu was among the more erratic operators in the late Qing machine-struck copper program, and the 1903–1904 five-cash issues reflect that inconsistency. The province had only recently converted from cast cash production, and quality control across this type varies considerably — not as generic grading caution, but because the Chengdu facility changed roller and die specifications mid-run as it worked out mechanical problems with imported equipment.

Y#228 is one of the scarcer Szechuan denominational entries from this period, with surviving examples disproportionately concentrated in lower circulated grades, suggesting genuine heavy use in a province whose cash economy was still absorbing machine-struck coinage into existing monetary habits.