The Canton Mint () also romanised as Kwangtung Mint was a

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...

located in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

which produced coinage at the discretion of the Canton Provincial government. Opened in 1889 it was the first mint in China that used modern minting techniques and was at the time the largest mint in the world producing 2.7 million coins per day.

History

In 1887 as China began to modernise its minting methods British mint Heaton and Sons (later known as the

Birmingham Mint The Birmingham Mint was a coining mint and metal-working company based in Birmingham, England. Formerly the world's largest privately-owned mint, the company produced coins for many foreign nations including France, Italy, China, and much of the ...

) won a contract to build and equip a new mint in

Canton Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. Designed in England the new Canton Mint constructed in Chinese style was opened by

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

Chang Chih-tung on 25 May 1889 at a total cost of 1 million dollars. Measuring 200 meters and 130 meters wide the Canton Mint was the largest mint in the world operating 90 minting presses as once, compared to the US mint's six. In its opening year the mint produced the first Chinese Silver Dragon coins based on Japanese and Korean design. The minted closed in 1931 and later briefly re-opened by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

in 1949 before their retreat to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

References

{{Reflist Mints (currency) Chinese numismatics