50 Fen - Guangxu Four characters

Chekiang Province's silver coinage of this period emerged from a mint establishment that was itself contentious — provincial authorities resisted Peking's push to centralize coin production, and several provinces struck their own issues in direct competition with the Tianjin central mint. The Chekiang pieces differ from contemporaries in their fineness specification, .860 rather than the .900 common to other provincial issues, a deliberate choice whose rationale remains debated among specialists.

Y#54 is distinguished by the four-character reverse inscription that gives this type its collector name. The series had a short production window before provincial minting authority was progressively curtailed after 1900.