Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Fen - Guangxu
| Issuer | Yunnan Province |
|---|---|
| Year | 1908 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese, Manchu |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A large, sinuous five-clawed Imperial dragon occupies the central field, depicted in high relief coiling amid stylized clouds and rising above conventionalized ocean waves at the base. The dragon faces forward with an open mouth and prominent eyes, rendered in the vigorous late Qing provincial style. A flaming pearl is positioned above the dragon's head at the top of the field. The upper peripheral legend reads YUN-NAN-PROVINCE in Latin characters, while the lower legend reads 3 MACE AND 6 CANDAREENS, denoting the weight denomination. Small six-petaled rosette stops separate the legends, and the design is contained within a beaded border with an outer reeded rim. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Yunnan's silver coinage of the late Qing period reflects the province's uncomfortable proximity to both the Burmese border and the French Indochina monetary zone, where Mexican and French trade dollars had entrenched themselves in local commerce. The Yunnan provincial mint struck this issue specifically to compete with those foreign coins for dominance in southwestern trade networks — a battle the Qing government was losing almost everywhere by 1908.
Guangxu died that same year, in circumstances still debated: he predeceased the Empress Dowager Cixi by a single day, and modern forensic analysis of his remains has confirmed arsenic poisoning.