7 Mace - Guangxu Bullion coinage, pattern, white metal

Kirin Province was among the first Chinese provincial mints to experiment with machine-struck silver coinage in the early 1880s, partly in response to the flood of foreign trade dollars — particularly Mexican pesos — that had come to dominate commerce in Manchuria. These pattern pieces in white metal were struck as technical and bureaucratic proof-of-concept, requiring approval from both provincial and central Qing authorities before any silver production could begin. Most never cleared that process.

Kann 916 is among the rarer Kirin pattern listings. Survivors in any metal are scarce; white metal examples were functional prototypes, not presentation pieces, and were rarely preserved with care.