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500 Cash - Xianfeng Yuanbao, Boo-chiowan
| Issuer | Board of Revenue Mint (戶部局), Beijing |
|---|---|
| Year | 1854 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese (traditional, regular script) |
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| Reverse description | Central square hole flanked by two vertical Manchu script words (ᠪᠣᠣ ᠴᡳᠣᠸᠠᠨ, Boo-chiowan), each reading vertically and positioned to the right and left of the hole respectively. A single Chinese character 當 (Dang, meaning 'valued at') appears above the hole, while two Chinese characters 百五 (Wu Bai, meaning 'five hundred') appear below. The legends collectively denote the mint name and denomination in bilingual Manchu-Chinese format, standard for Qing dynasty large-denomination cash coinage. The field is plain with a raised outer rim. |
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| Additional information |
The Xianfeng reign (1851–1861) saw the Qing government resort to increasingly desperate monetary measures as the Taiping Rebellion drained the treasury. Large-denomination cash coins — this piece among them — were introduced from 1853 onward as a crude form of fiscal emergency, effectively forcing an unfavorable exchange rate onto the population. The Board of Revenue Mint in Beijing was the most tightly supervised of all Qing mints, yet even here quality collapsed rapidly under wartime production pressure.
By 1854, the brass alloy itself was being debased. Hartill 22.712 sits within the 500-cash tier that the public almost immediately discounted in practice, often trading at a fraction of face value.