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China Taku Naval Yard mint 1896-99

Started by bgriff99, October 31, 2014, 09:31:24 AM

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bgriff99

Obverse:  Kuang-hsu tung-pao.   Reverse Bao Gu in Manchu.   Cast 1896 or 97 at the Taku fort and arsenal in Chihli Province.   Diameter 23 mm, wt. 3.1 g.
Its wide sprue runs fully a quarter of the way around the coin, from 12 to 3 o'clock.

Figleaf

You pinned it down quite narrowly. My id would have been Chihli 1875-1908. Was there only one mint in Chihli? I note more money-related innovation in 1896. Is there a connection with the 1895 treaty of Shimonoseki, concluding peace with Japan?

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

bgriff99

There is an extensive backstory with this piece.   Beijing is in Chihli, and the provincial capital Paoting also had a mint.   Plus Tianjin (forgive hopeless mix of Wade-Giles and Pinyin) had a mint ordered to start in 1886.   For that there is subsequent information, but not for Taku.   There is no record of it's being ordered to cast cash.   Only that the 1896 imperial maritime customs report says it began making cash that year.

This coin is slightly over 8 fen in weight (0.8 mace) which was the standard in 1896, but at that weight it cost more to cast them than they were worth.   In 1898 the standard was reduced to 7 fen, then raised back to 8 in 1899, then dropped to 6 fen in 1901.   

This larger variety is rare, and must have been a trial issue.   Smaller and lighter ones with a different obverse, and also way of writing the mint name are relatively common, plus small forgeries.   The Tianjin (aka Tientsin) mint was ordered to use machines to strike coins, but the losses at that were huge.   When they received the machinery they were quite surprised to find it was up to them to roll the metal and produce flans!    The copper they were purchasing was of the lowest grade.   They pleaded to be permitted to cast instead, still with significant losses, but at least they didn't have broken machines to deal with.     

The smaller Taku coins have a half-circle dot which can be better read as "Hu" and are attributed in Japan as Hukou in Kiangsi.   They seem to know something about a "Kiang Hsi Pao Hu Chu" mint that Hartill doesn't.   He says that's unverified, it's still Taku.    There is a pattern struck piece of that type with the circle rather clearly making the mint name read Hu.   (Two specimens in the 1991 Dan Ching auction sale.   One fetched $375, the other didn't meet reserve, and was for sale afterward at $285.   Still too rich for me.)

Either way this coin is not disputed for attribution, and was produced only briefly (ergo 1896).   This is Chinasmith's area of expertise, not mine.    The peace with Japan is perhaps related with more casting being possible in 1896, because Japanese copper could again be bought.   The Yunnan mines at that time were exhausted.    In 1900 in the Boxer Rebellion the Taku facility was overrun and destroyed.     

Figleaf

Quote from: bgriff99 on October 31, 2014, 10:04:51 PM
The copper they were purchasing was of the lowest grade.

Are you sure it was copper, not brass? I know of at least one mint master who complained about bad brass: it was the brass of spent artillery shells. This would make much sense for a naval yard: peace was upon them and they were sitting on a large supply of brass, while the country's economy would be recovering, so that more coins would be needed. It would also explain the short mintage run: they'd used up the brass and nearby mines were exhausted, so it was logical to shut down the mint.

Peter.
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

bgriff99

Somewhere about the house I have some pictures of the ruins of the fort in 1900.   Guns in the pictures were muzzle loading.   At that time even breech loading large bore artillery did not use fixed rounds.   But there ought to have been some spent shells and stockpiles for manufacturing cartridges.    It makes sense to cast scrap and stock into coin, then request new material to manufacture ammunition. 

The Tianjin arsenal reported among its coining woes that the brass for the struck coins required 70% alloy instead of the normal 54%.    They basically pleaded that casting could be done with low grade metal.   Shell brass is 65-70% copper, but Tianjin cast a lot of cash, more than just using scrap.    Their struck pieces are much scarcer than the cast.   The 1888 coining press broke down repeatedly.   If already making any kind of brass cartridges, they knew how to get workable alloy.   The cost of producing flans over and above metal cost was not taken into account when ordering them to start.   The only 1890-1900 era mint that cranked out mass quantities of cashpieces was Kwangtung.   Superintendent:  Edward Wyon.

Shell brass was used in the US for 1944 cents, but must have needed additional copper, because the color is not any different.   Conversely in my city there is a building, now a cavernous exhibition center, which is still called "the tank plant".   To it was taken a train car load of scrap cash reputedly from Vietnam, but probably Indonesia, to be made into tank rounds.   They couldn't use it because of the tin and lead.   All buried in a pit and still there.