Candareen-mace: coin of Hupeh Province (China)

CANDAREEN-MACE: COIN OF HUPEH (CHINA)

7.2 candareen (10 fen), 1894: Hupeh Province (China)

ND (no date).

Ruler: Guangxu Emperor, also known by his temple name Emperor Dezong of Qing, personal name Zaitian — the 10th emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the 9th Qing emperor to rule over China proper.

光緒元寶 (Traditional Chinese: top to bottom and right to left) + ᠪᠠᡩᠠᡵᠠᠩᡤᠠ ᡩᠣᡵᠣ ᠶᡠᠸᠠᠨ ᠪᠣᠣ (Manchu characters: in the center): Guangxu (Emperor) - Yuanbao (currency).

湖北省造: Made in Hupeh (or Hubei) Province.

庫平七分二釐: 7.2 candareens (worth by weight).

HU-PEH PROVINCE.

7.2 CANDAREENS.

本省: province.

Mythical dragon (typical plot of Chinese coins).

Silver (0.820): 19 mm - 2.59 g
Reference price: 18.0$

COIN CANDAREEN-MACE — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)

...a lot of different Chinese issuers (end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries): EMPIRE OF CHINA + CHINESE PROVINCES: yuan = 7 mace 2 candareen

CANDAREEN-MACE as coin name.

Candareen-mace — conventional denomination of a number of silver coins of China at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The modern monetary unit of China (PRC) is the yuan, introduced in 1835, which is divided into 10 jiao or 100 fen. However, it did not immediately become the main currency. For a long time after the introduction of the yuan, its predecessor — the tael, which consisted of 10 mace or 100 candareen in weight units, was also used in parallel.

Since ancient times, the Chinese used silver ingots of a characteristic shape — sycee — for relatively large monetary settlements. They, as a rule, had the shape of Chinese shoes and differed in size: most often from 5 to 50 tael (tael as a unit of weight was equated to 37.8 g in the mentioned period). Accordingly, the denomination of these coins was called tael. At the same time, the population of China and the surrounding territories widely used silver Mexican pesos for some time.

However, in 1889, China carried out a reform designed to bring order to the motley monetary system. The yuan becomes the single currency at the following exchange rate: 1 yuan = 0.72 tael of silver.

It was during this transition period from tael to yuan (end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries) that the coins mentioned at the beginning of the article were issued, the denomination of which was indicated in the units of the "tael system" — candareen and mace. In essence, these values indicated the weight of silver in the coin, but at the same time, they also served directly as the denomination.

By the way...

Candareen, as a unit of weight, was 0.378 g in those years.
Mace was equal to 10 candareen or 3.78 g.
Jiao (in the new yuan system) is equal to 10 fen (in English-speaking countries, the fen of the transition period was called a cent, which was even reflected on Chinese coins of the first half of the 20th century; and the yuan was a dollar).
Candareen, as a monetary unit, can be considered a prototype of fen; in turn, mace is jiao.

The ratio between the new money units and the old ones was set at the following level: 7.2 candareen = 1 jiao = 10 fen (10 cent) or 7 mace 2 candareen = 1 yuan (dollar).

Coins of the transition type struck in several denominations: 3.6 candareen – the equivalent of the new 5 fen /cent/, 7.2 candareen – 10 fen /cent/, 1 mace and 4.4 candareen – 20 fen /cent/, 3 mace and 6 candareen – 50 fen /cent/, 7 mace and 2 candareen — 1 yuan /dollar/.

Distinguish coins denominated in candareen-mace, the central issue of the Chinese Empire, as well as local issues of a number of provinces: Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan...