50 Cash Ho-nan, brass

Honan Province issued these large cash pieces during a period when central Republican authority had effectively collapsed, leaving provincial military governors — the warlords — to manage their own financial infrastructure. The Ho-nan mint struck brass rather than copper for this denomination partly due to supply disruptions that plagued interior provinces throughout the early 1920s. Y#394b distinguishes itself from the related 394 series by its brass composition, a detail that mattered little to the soldiers and merchants who spent them.