Chinese Cash Coin, 1821 - 1850, Daoguang, Qing Dynasty - BOO YUWAN (S1513)

China - 1 Cash Coin

Qing (Ching) Dynasty

Tao-Kuang / Daoguang Emperor

Boo Yuwan / Board of Works Mint(Beijing)

Coins were not minted with dates, but this form was used between 1821 to 1850

The Daoguang Emperor (16 September 1782 25 February 1850) was the eighth emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1820 to 1850. His reign was marked by "external disaster and internal rebellion," that is, by the First Opium War, and the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion which nearly brought down the dynasty. The historian Jonathan Spence characterizes Daoguang as a well meaning but ineffective man," who promoted officials who "presented a purist view even if they had nothing to say about the domestic and foreign problems surrounding the dynasty."

Daoguang failed to understand the intention or determination of the Europeans, or the basic economics of a war on drugs. Although the Europeans were outnumbered, outgunned and were thousands of miles away from home, they could bring far superior firepower to bear at any point of contact along Chinese coast. The Manchu court was highly dependent on the continued flow of tax/levy payment from southern China via the Grand Canal, which was easily cut off by the British expeditionary force at Zhenjiang (Chenkiang/Chinkiang). He had a poor understanding of the British and the industrial revolution that Britain had undergone, preferring to turn a blind eye to the rest of the world. It was said that Daoguang did not even know where Britain was located in the world. His thirty-year reign introduced the initial onslaught by western imperialism and foreign invasions that would plague China, in one form or another, for the next one hundred years.

The insciption of Boo Yuwan indicates that the coin was minted at the Board of Works mint in Beijing. The Manchu mint name translates to Pao-yuan or "The Source of all Currency".