A friend said whether there were any mechanism copper coins in the Guangxu dynasty. Today we will take the most typical mechanism money in Guangxu Tongbao, which is the Baoguang Bureau of Guangxu Tongbao, to briefly explain. In the thirteenth year of Guangxu, that is, in 1887, he applied for casting to Emperor Guangxu. The general content of the performance was that there were machines for casting copper coins and silver dollars in the United Kingdom. Why not introduce them to the Qing Dynasty and use machines to cast silver dollars and copper coins.
After the Emperor Guangxu heard this, he immediately approved it. In the two years from 14th to 15th Guangxu, he built a factory in Huanghuatang outside Dadongmen in Guangzhou and set up the Guangdong Money Bureau to cast the Guangxu mechanism copper coins at that time. At that time, the copper coin casting machine purchased by the Qing government from the United Kingdom could cast 2.6 million copper coins a day, and one machine can cast 2.6 million copper coins per day. Compared with the traditional and old sand foundry method used to forge, the efficiency has improved a lot.
At that time, the first machine-made copper coin of Guangxu Baoguang Bureau was the one we often call Kupingguang. Everyone looked at the picture and it was Kupingguang. Zhang Zhidong gave Guangxu a coin for Kupingguang. Regarding the emperor, Emperor Guangxu believed that Kupingguang Yiqian was not a fixed format of the previously minted copper coins because of his conservative thinking, so he requested to recast our most common Manwen Baoguang bureau mechanism coins, which is also our most common now. Arrived Guangxu Tongbao mechanism copper coins.
At that time, Guangxu Tongbao’s Guangju mechanical coins were coined for every penny, that is, each coin weighed one coin, and 1000 coins could be exchanged for one or two silver coins. At that time, the people were very able to accept such coins because they would avoid the use of mechanisms to make coins. Coins vary in size, and there is a phenomenon that private castings and official castings are mixed together. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, it is very convenient for the Guangxu Tongbao Baoguang Bureau of the mechanism to circulate in the market, because at the beginning, each coin weighs one coin. The Qing government believed that it would lose money because it was very sufficient, so the Qing government began a series of measures to reduce weight.
From one dollar to eight cents each weighing about three grams, and later it lost seven cents, about 2.6 grams, and continued to lose weight to six points, even in the 32nd year of Guangxu, each weight loss was three. It is divided into two centimeters, which is 1.4 grams, so that the diameter of the coin is no longer the diameter of the previous Baoguang Bureau. This is what we see now. The Guangxu Tongbao mechanism is wide. Its piercing is also changed from the previous one. In order to wear it round.
The above is the most typical history of Guangxu Tongbao’s machine-made coin casting. Although the Guangxu Tongbao’s casting time is not very long, it is because the number of machine castings is much more than that of ordinary sand casting. , The efficiency is much higher, so its stock is not very small, and its market value is basically not very high.