Item number: A4661-1、A4661-2

Reference number: Kann#524; L&M#559; Y#181a

Year: AD 1905

Material: Iron

The results after XRF testing (A4661-1)

The results after XRF testing (A4661-2)

Size: 23.2 x 23.2 x 30.9 mm (A4661-1), 23.5 x 23.5 x 30.7 mm (A4661-2)

Weight: 144.55 g (A4661-1), 143.5 g (A4661-2)

Manufactured by: Jilin Silver Coin Bureau

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2008

These are two coin dies for a Guangxu Yuanbao silver coin with a denomination of 1 Mace and 4.4 Candareens, manufactured in AD 1905 (the thirty-first year of the Guangxu reign, corresponding to the cyclical Yisi year) by the Jilin Machinery Bureau.

The working faces of these dies present a mirror image of the finished struck coin. At the centre of the coin’s obverse die face is an imperial coiled dragon depicted amidst celestial clouds, its body delineated with five rows of dotted scales and exhaling a flaming pearl bearing seven distinct tongues of fire. Below its lower jaw are three discrete dots, and the flaming pearl exhibits an irregular contour. Flanking the dragon are Manchu inscriptions spelling the official imperial title Daicing gurun (ᡩᠠᡳ᠌ᠴᡳᠩ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ), signifying the ‘Great Qing State’. Serving as lateral delimiters, these Manchu words divide the peripheral legends: the upper margin bears the English inscription ‘KIRIN PROVINCE’, whilst the lower margin displays the compact legend ‘IMACEAND44CANDAREENS’ (denoting 1 Mace and 4.4 Candareens), both of which are heavily effaced and indistinct. A prominent, transverse through-crack traverses the central field; during coining, planchet metal would have been extruded into this fissure, producing irregular raised lines across the coin, whilst uneven stress distribution under coining pressure would almost certainly have induced catastrophic die failure.

The reverse die face bears the four Chinese characters Guangxu Yuanbao (光緒元寶) disposed around a medium-sized Taiji (yin-yang) emblem at the centre. Enclosed by a continuous beaded inner ring, the outer periphery displays the cyclical characters Yisi (乙巳), corresponding to the calendar year AD 1905, inscribed on either flank. Demarcated by these cyclical markers, the upper margin reads ‘Made in Jilin Province’ (吉林省造), whilst the lower margin specifies the legal weight and denomination as ‘Treasury Standard 1 Mace and 4.4 Candareens’ (庫平一錢四分四釐).

The two dies employed for striking the obverse and reverse are virtually identical in mechanical morphology aside from their engraved working faces. Along the outer perimeter of each die face is an annular recess termed the rim gutter or rim cavity; during striking, displaced metal is forced into this recess to form the coin’s raised protective rim. Extending from the outer edge of the die face toward the neck is a minute angled facet termed the bevel or chamfer, which serves to mitigate edge stress concentration during striking and minimises the risk of edge spalling or die cuds. Immediately below the chamfer lies the die neck, formed as a slightly relieved, short cylindrical section. Beneath the neck is the die shoulder, which slopes gently outward to expand into the full diameter of the die shank. The shank itself is a substantial, heavy steel cylinder designed to absorb repeated impact shock, featuring lateral positioning grooves that provide a keying mortise to lock the die securely within the coining press.

The Guangxu Yuanbao coinage of Jilin possesses pronounced regional characteristics. Prior to the thirty-third year of Guangxu (AD 1907), the obverse field almost invariably featured either a yin-yang Taiji emblem or a potted wannianqing (Rohdea japonica, or ‘evergreen lily’, symbolising ‘May the Great Qing endure for ten thousand years’). Because the die-sinkers at the Jilin Machinery Bureau were local craftsmen completely unfamiliar with Western alphabets, the English legends on the reverse were riddled with orthographical errors; blunders such as rendering the provincial name as ‘KIPIN’, ‘KRIIN’, or ‘RROVINCE’, the denomination as ‘CANDAPINS’ or ‘CANRADINS’, and even setting the letters ‘C’ and ‘D’ inverted were commonplace. Furthermore, owing to the poor metallurgical quality and rapid fatigue of the locally sourced die steel, annealing and re-engraving were conducted with exceptional frequency. Each recutting or altering of the dies generated endless minor variations in the number of dragon scale rows, the flame count of the pearl, the number of tail fins (typically seven to nine, though varying from five to eleven), the execution of the Taiji, and calligraphic stroke variations, resulting in over two thousand catalogued varieties for Jilin Province alone. Additionally, systemic laxity during coining operations led to widespread technical anomalies, such as double striking, incuse brockages, uneven planchet strike-up, and rough edge-milling; whilst virtually none attained pristine Western mint-state standards, their rustic, vernacular quality has attracted sustained scholarship from modern students of Chinese machine-struck numismatics.

Mintage in AD 1905 was exceptionally large, with the 20-cent (2-jiao / 1 Mace 4.4 Candareens) denomination exhibiting the most prolific typological variety. Based upon calligraphic distinctions in the inner obverse inscription, these issues are demarcated into three principal classes: Type I, in which the terminal strokes of both Guang (光) and Yuan (元) exhibit sharp angular hooks and their final two strokes are conjoined; Type II, wherein the third stroke of Guang is altered from a left-falling stroke to a right-falling dot, and the terminal stroke of Yuan lacks an angular hook whilst still connecting to the preceding stroke; and Type III, where the final two strokes of Guang remain entirely disjoined. In terms of dragon morphology and secondary detailing, Type I is further subdivided into three varieties: one where the dragon’s lower lip forms a single clean horizontal line paired with a bean-shaped flaming pearl; a second where the lower lip extends into five elongated strokes accompanied by an irregularly circular pearl; and a third where the lower lip is underscored by three discrete dots. Types II and III consistently feature the dragon with three dots beneath the lower lip, with Type III bifurcated into two sub-varieties depending upon the presence or absence of an auspicious cloud beneath the dragon’s right foreclaw.

Inheriting the monetary framework of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Empire long maintained a parallel bimetallic standard in which uncoined silver bullion (taels) and cast bronze cash coins (zhiqian) circulated concurrently without a fixed statutory conversion ratio, fluctuating freely according to prevailing market forces. Following the opening of the treaty ports after the First Opium War and the reduction of tariffs for Western merchants, foreign machine-struck silver crowns—predominantly Spanish Carolus dollars and Mexican ‘Cap and Ray’ eagles—flooded into the Chinese interior, favoured by merchants for their certified fineness and the convenience of being tallied by piece rather than weighed. Consequently, China’s traditional silver tael system, burdened by the tedious necessity of weighing, assaying, and reconciling countless regional weight and purity conventions (pingshui), caused immense economic haemorrhaging in foreign trade. Against this backdrop, progressive officials and intellectuals agitated for the abolition of the tael in favour of the decimal dollar (feiliang gaiyuan) and the domestic production of modern machine-struck coins to reclaim national fiscal autonomy. Although the establishment of the Guangdong Mint in AD 1889 by Zhang Zhidong, Viceroy of Liangguang, to strike the Guangxu Yuanbao dragon dollar is traditionally celebrated as the formal origin of nationwide Western-style silver dollar production, the frontier province of Jilin had in fact already pioneered machine-struck silver issues. In the early Guangxu period, to consolidate northeastern border defences against Russian expansionism, Imperial Commissioner Wu Dacheng and his colleagues were commissioned to establish the Jilin Machinery Bureau on the northern bank of the Songhua River outside the provincial capital. In response to a regional liquidity crisis exacerbated by an acute scarcity of cast bronze cash and the rampant over-issue of private promissory notes (sitie), General Xiyuan of Jilin took the initiative in the tenth year of Guangxu (AD 1884) without prior imperial sanction, utilising equipment inside the bureau to strike five denominations—ranging from 1 Qian to 1 Tael—of the ‘Jilin Changping’ silver coinage. Inscribed with calligraphy brushed by Wu Dacheng himself, this series adopted modern mechanical coining techniques whilst adhering to the traditional local Changping tael weight standard; although the venture languished after failing to secure formal imperial ratification for widespread circulation, it represented the true inception of mechanised silver minting in China.

Following Guangdong’s successful production of the dragon dollar, provinces across the empire established their own independent silver mints, creating severe administrative fragmentation in production and domestic circulation. This decentralised minting, distinguished by provincial titles boldly engraved upon the coin faces, reflected the fiscal autonomy and regional fragmentation of late Qing provincial governance; once crossing provincial borders, coins were routinely treated as mere uncoined bullion and discounted by weight and fineness, precipitating an urgent desire within the imperial court to reassert central monetary authority. In the debates over currency reform during the late Guangxu reign, intense controversies arose: the monetary standard debate, pitting Sir Robert Hart’s advocacy of a gold exchange standard against Zhang Zhidong’s insistence upon a silver standard, and the protracted ‘Tael versus Dollar’ (liang-yuan) dispute between provincial viceroys, the Board of Revenue (Hubu), and the subsequent Ministry of Finance (Duzhibu). Although Zhang Zhidong had originally fathered the dollar-denominated dragon coinage in Guangdong, he later reversed his position to advocate for a 1-Tael Kuping coin to preserve ancestral fiscal institutions, stalling reform until the second year of Xuantong (AD 1910), when Duke Zaize promulgated the Regulations on Currency System (Bizhi Zeli), formally codifying the 7 Mace 2 Candareens silver dollar as the national standard monetary unit and centralising all coinage rights under the central Tientsin Mint. Amidst these shifting imperial policies, Jilin received imperial sanction in the twenty-second year of Guangxu (AD 1896) to resume mechanised silver production, issuing undated dragon coins followed by ten successive annual series inscribed with cyclical dates. Because Jilin occupied the volatile geopolitical frontier surrounding the Russian-constructed Chinese Eastern Railway and became a primary theatre of Russo-Japanese rivalry, Russian rouble banknotes (qiangtie) alongside Japanese dragon dollars and gold-standard notes (jinbiao) dominated local commerce; speculative merchant syndicates and native banks systematically melted down full-weight Jilin dragon dollars to profit from bullion disparities, shipping the silver to Shanghai or exporting it via Dalian. This rampant arbitrage created an acute shortage of fractional currency, compelling the Jilin Mint to concentrate almost exclusively on striking fractional silver coins—predominantly 20-cent (2-jiao) and 50-cent (5-jiao) denominations—with the total mintage of 20-cent pieces estimated to have exceeded thirty million coins, vastly outnumbering the production of 1-Yuan crowns. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (AD 1908), the Jilin Mint was ordered to terminate independent operations and was formally merged into the General Mint of the Three Eastern Provinces, bringing its distinctive provincial coinage to a definitive conclusion prior to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty.

物件編號: A4661-1、A4661-2

參考書目編號: Kann#524; L&M#559; Y#181a

年代: 公元 1905 年

材質: 鐵

XRF分析結果(A4661-1)

XRF分析結果(A4661-2)

尺寸: 23.2 x 23.2 x 30.9 mm (A4661-1), 23.5 x 23.5 x 30.7 mm (A4661-2)

重量: 144.55 g (A4661-1), 143.5 g (A4661-2)

製造地: 吉林銀元局

來源: 福君錢幣 2008

這是兩件面額為一錢四分四釐的光緒元寶銀幣模具，於時值乙巳年間的光緒31年(公元1905年)，由吉林機器局鑄造。

模面為該幣成品的鏡像。錢幣正面模面中央是一條雲中盤捲的五爪蟠龍，龍身有五排圓點鱗，口吐焰珠，火焰有七道。其下唇之下有三顆圓點，火焰珠的形狀也較不規則。兩側以滿文書寫正式國名「ᡩᠠᡳ᠌ᠴᡳᠩ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ」(Daicing gurun)，即「大清國」。以之為分界，上緣環列英文「KIRIN PROVINCE」，即「吉林省」，下緣環列緊湊的「IMACEAND44CANDAREENS」，即「一錢四分四釐」。英文處均漫漶難辨。中央有貫穿性的開裂，在打製時可能會將金屬擠入裂縫，在錢幣上形成不規則的線條，更可能的是，由於應力不均，在施加壓力時造成模具進一步的毀損。

錢幣背面模面中央是「光緒元寶」四字，圍繞著一個中型的太極圖騰。以珠圈環繞，外緣兩側刻有公元1905年的對應干支「乙巳」，以「乙、巳」為分界線，上緣環列「吉林省造」，下緣環列面額「庫平一錢四分四釐」。

壓印正背面的兩個模具，形制除模面外基本一致。其模面外緣均有一圈凹溝，稱為緣槽（Rim Gutter / Rim Cavity），金屬受擠壓流入此溝槽後，形成錢幣外側凸起的保護邊環（Rim）。模面邊緣延伸至模頸之間，有一的微小的傾角削面，稱為倒角（Bevel / Chamfer），有助於在壓印時降低邊緣應力集中，減少邊緣崩裂（Cud）的風險。模頸則位於倒角下方，為稍作收窄或延伸的短圓柱段。模頸下方為模肩，稍微傾斜並擴增至模身的寬度。模身則為厚重的圓柱，為承受衝擊的主體，側邊則有凹槽，提供固定於機械上的榫卯結構。

吉林光緒元寶相當具有地方特色。其正面中央在光緒三十三年(公元1907年)以前，幾乎恆常以陰陽太極圖或花瓶萬年青(寓意「大清萬年」)為中心。由於吉林機器官局的雕模工匠多為本土技工，不諳西文，致使背面英文幣文訛誤百出，舉凡省名拼為「KIPIN」、「KRIIN」或「RROVINCE」，面額拼為「CANDAPINS」、「CANRADINS」甚至倒置字母「C」與「D」皆屢見不鮮。加之該廠鋼模所用鋼材質地欠佳、極易磨損，導致鑄錢過程中頻繁翻刻改模，每次修模便派生出龍鱗排數、火焰珠焰數、尾鰭數量（多見七至九條，亦有五條至十一條）、太極繪法，以及字體筆勢的無窮微差，致使單一吉林省的銀幣版別便多達兩千餘種。此外，幣廠在軋印過程中疏於管理，重打、陰文反印、幣面打制不勻或邊道粗獷等現象極為普遍，雖鮮有符合造幣廠品相者，卻因質樸而反受機制幣研究者關注。

公元1905年光緒元寶鑄量較大，而以二角銀幣類別最為豐富，依正面內圈漢字書體差異可明確分為三大版式：第一型正面「光、元」字末筆折筆，末二筆均相接；第二型「光」字第三筆撇劃改為右點，「元」字末筆未折筆，但末二筆相接；第三型「光」字末二筆未相接。在龍紋與細節上，第一型又細分為龍下唇為單一清晰橫線配豆形火焰珠、下唇接五條長劃配不規則圓形珠，以及下唇帶三顆圓點之三類；第二型與第三型則一律承襲唇下三圓點之龍形，第三型更依右前爪下方有無祥雲分出兩個亞種。

清承明制，長久維持著銀兩與制錢並行流通的平行本位制，各類貨幣缺乏固定的法定兌換比率，彼此隨市價自發波動。道光以降五口通商，洋商進出口稅率降低，外國機制洋銀如西班牙本洋、墨西哥鷹洋等憑藉成色標準、計枚核算的便利大量湧入內地，使得稱量論色、平水繁複的中國傳統銀兩制在對外貿易中蒙受巨額折損。在此背景下，晚清朝野掀起廢兩改元與自鑄機制幣以挽回利權的呼聲。雖然光緒十五年(公元1889年)兩廣總督張之洞在廣東設廠開鑄「光緒元寶」龍洋，被視為中國大規模仿造西式銀圓的正規起點，但東北邊陲的吉林在機制幣試鑄上實已開風氣之先。光緒初年為籌辦邊防，欽差大臣吳大澂等人奉飭於吉林省城外松花江北岸設立吉林機器局；因應當地私帖氾濫、制錢匱乏之幣荒，吉林將軍希元於光緒十年(公元1884年)先斬後奏，利用吉林機器局局內設備試製自一錢至一兩共五種面額的「吉林廠平」銀兩幣。此套銀兩幣由吳大澂親筆書寫，雖具備近代機制打壓工藝，但計量單位仍依循傳統廠平兩制，隨後雖因未奉旨正式推廣而沈寂，卻實開風氣之先。

在廣東開鑄龍洋後，各省紛紛仿效自設銀元局，造成鑄造與流通上的嚴重割據局面，這種各省分鑄、幣面標示省名的現象也反映了晚清地方政權的分散與獨立性，出省之後的貨幣往往仍須秤量折色，引發朝廷統一幣制的強烈企圖。在光緒末期圍繞幣制改革的論戰中，既有赫德倡議金匯兌本位與張之洞等人堅持銀本位的本位之爭，亦有全國督撫與戶部、度支部之間相持不下的「兩元之爭」；張之洞雖首創廣東元制龍洋，後期卻改主張鑄造庫平一兩銀幣以合祖制，直至宣統二年(公元1910年）載澤頒布《幣制則例》，方確定以七錢二分為元、收鑄幣權歸中央的天津總廠方案。在此潮流中，吉林自光緒二十二年(公元1896年)獲准重啟銀元鑄造，先後發行無干支及十個干支年份的省造龍洋。由於吉林地處沙俄修建中東鐵路與日俄勢力角逐的前線，俄國羌帖與日本龍銀、金票肆意盤踞，各方投機商號與錢鋪大肆熔毀低色差額的吉林大洋轉運上海或大連出口，致使市場小洋奇缺，客觀上促成吉林造幣廠以鑄造二角、五角等銀輔幣為絕對主力，其中二角輔幣總產量推算逾三千萬枚，遠超一圓主幣。光緒三十四年(公元1908年)，吉林銀元局奉旨停辦，最終併入東三省製造銀圓總局，直至清廷覆亡。