5 Jiao - Guangxu Pei Yang Arsenal, type 1

The Pei Yang Arsenal mint at Tianjin was established primarily as a weapons manufacturing facility; coinage was almost an afterthought, added to supply the northern provinces with silver currency after the Guangxu Emperor's government recognized it could no longer rely solely on Guangdong for machine-struck coin. This 1896 issue predates the better-known Pei Yang dollar series and represents the mint finding its footing with silver denominations.

The .860 fineness sits below the standard adopted by most provincial mints following Guangdong's lead, a deliberate local deviation that generated complaints from merchants accustomed to the Kwangtung standard.