The "Fat Man dollar" takes its name from the Yuan Shikai portrait used on the silver dollar of 1914, issued after Yuan consolidated power and formalized his presidency. This 5 fen pattern was part of a broader effort to rationalize China's fractional coinage alongside that dollar issue. Patterns in copper-nickel from this series were struck in limited numbers as proposed subsidiary pieces; most never advanced to circulation strikes, leaving survivors almost exclusively in institutional or long-held private collections.
The Kann 815 variant designation signals a die or compositional divergence from the primary pattern listing — the specifics of which remain incompletely documented in the literature.
The "Fat Man dollar" takes its name from the Yuan Shikai portrait used on the silver dollar of 1914, issued after Yuan consolidated power and formalized his presidency. This 5 fen pattern was part of a broader effort to rationalize China's fractional coinage alongside that dollar issue. Patterns in copper-nickel from this series were struck in limited numbers as proposed subsidiary pieces; most never advanced to circulation strikes, leaving survivors almost exclusively in institutional or long-held private collections.
The Kann 815 variant designation signals a die or compositional divergence from the primary pattern listing — the specifics of which remain incompletely documented in the literature.