Four Chinese characters - Guang Xu Tong Bao / Four Chinese characters - Ku Ping Yi Qian ("Treasury scales one qian"). 24.5mm, 3.62 grams. Hartill #22.1334; Schjoth 1588.
These are among the earliest machine-struck Chinese cash. The cost of minting them was too high, and the unorthodox reverse of these coins incurred Imperial disapproval, so this type was discontinued.
The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 - 14 November 1908), born Zaitian, was the tenth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, under Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, only from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the Hundred Days Reform, but was abruptly stopped when Cixi launched a coup in 1898, after which he was put under house arrest until his death. His reign name means "The Glorious Succession".
No doubt the most well know Machine-struck chinese coin, with its unortodox design