Produced in 1960 by the People's Republic of China as an officially sanctioned reproduction of the late Qing dynasty provincial coinage, this piece was never intended to deceive — it was issued during a period when the PRC mint produced several such replicas for domestic cultural and educational distribution. The original Guangxu Yuanbao types it references were struck across numerous provincial mints between 1875 and 1908, with quality and alloy varying wildly by province.
Y#1 in the KM/Yeoman system designates this as the first catalogued modern Chinese replica issue. Copper rather than the brass of many provincial originals.
Produced in 1960 by the People's Republic of China as an officially sanctioned reproduction of the late Qing dynasty provincial coinage, this piece was never intended to deceive — it was issued during a period when the PRC mint produced several such replicas for domestic cultural and educational distribution. The original Guangxu Yuanbao types it references were struck across numerous provincial mints between 1875 and 1908, with quality and alloy varying wildly by province.
Y#1 in the KM/Yeoman system designates this as the first catalogued modern Chinese replica issue. Copper rather than the brass of many provincial originals.