China - Provincial. YUNNAN: Military issue, AE ½ dollar (7.01g), ND (1927), ban yuan tong bi // dian at center of rice ear wreath, overstruck on Imperial type 10 cash coin, EF, RR. In 1927, the Yunnan Army under General Fan Shisheng minted 5 and 10 dollar military gold coins after moving its base to Baise, Guangxi. Those types were the only circulating gold coins for military use in China. This copper coin type is similar to the gold coin, and are often encountered overstruck on earlier 10 cash coins. This copper coin is suspected to have been minted in the same period by General Fan Shisheng and circulated as a military token. The gold coin types were published in The China Journal, Volume XXVIII, Number 6, June 1938.Fan Shisheng (1887-1939) was born in Xiaojie Town, Eshan County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province. Fan Shisheng led the Dian army to Guangzhou to oust Chen Jiongming, governor of Guangdong, in a bloody battle with Sun Yat-sen and the Guangxi clique in 1923. Sun Yat-sen promoted Fan to general in the army and gave him a saber as a gift in recognition of his achievements. In March 1939, he was stabbed on the streets of Kunming while visiting a doctor. He was 52 years old.
