7 Qian Bullion coinage, Changsha Chien-Yi Firm

The Chien-Yi Firm was one of several Changsha money shops (錢莊) operating in Hunan province during the final years of the Qing dynasty, issuing privately-struck silver bullion pieces to fill chronic gaps in standardized coinage supply. The provincial mint system was inconsistent, and commercial houses in Changsha routinely produced their own weighted silver as a practical substitute trusted within regional trade networks.

Kann 977 is among the scarcer privately-issued Hunan pieces catalogued by Eduard Kann, who documented these commercial issues largely from dealer stocks in the 1940s and 50s before many examples disappeared into private hoards.