5 Jiao

Szechuan's provincial coinage of the 1920s emerged from a period when the central government in Nanjing exercised little practical authority over the southwestern interior. The province operated effectively as an independent fiscal entity, with local military governors controlling the mints and issuing silver on their own terms. By 1928, at least a dozen competing warlord factions had held Chengdu at various points in the preceding decade.

Y#473 is known with striking inconsistencies attributable to poorly maintained dies and erratic press pressure — not a comment on this specific piece, but a documented characteristic of the Chengdu mint's output during this period.