5 Jiao / 1/2 Dollar - Xuantong

The Hu Pu Bank was established in 1905 as the Qing dynasty's first state-controlled bank, part of a broader reform effort under the New Policies program following the humiliations of the Boxer Indemnity. This 1910 issue came just a year before the Xinhai Revolution rendered the Xuantong emperor's government obsolete, meaning production runs were limited and many surviving coins saw little or no circulation before the dynasty collapsed entirely in 1912.

The .800 fineness was a deliberate compromise — below the .890 standard of contemporary Mexican dollars then dominating Chinese trade — a concession to production costs that drew criticism from foreign merchants skeptical of Qing monetary reform credibility.