Harbin's municipal coinage of the early 1930s emerged from an unusual administrative situation: the city functioned as a semi-autonomous hub dominated by Russian émigré population and competing Chinese, Soviet, and Japanese commercial interests, all converging on the Chinese Eastern Railway zone. Small-denomination local issues like this one circulated in a market where at least three currencies traded simultaneously. The piece offered here is a replica, not an original striking.
Harbin's municipal coinage of the early 1930s emerged from an unusual administrative situation: the city functioned as a semi-autonomous hub dominated by Russian émigré population and competing Chinese, Soviet, and Japanese commercial interests, all converging on the Chinese Eastern Railway zone. Small-denomination local issues like this one circulated in a market where at least three currencies traded simultaneously. The piece offered here is a replica, not an original striking.