The cast and especially the struck coinage issued by the Chinese War Lords in the early 1920's has always fascinated me. In the 20th century "Standard Catalog of World Coins" introduction to China we illustrate a classic example of a Szechuan 200 cash with retrograde English legends. In this article we will look at an example from Honan Province.






















In the late 1920's the current circulating 200 cash copper coin for Honan Province is listed as Y # 396 with sub-varieties including  a variety struck in brass. The upper legend reads: "HO - NAN" above crossed flags and the denomination below: "200 CASH".






The example of such a War Lord issue I happen to have in my collection is rather crudely struck in an alloy mix that appears to be more of brass content than copper giving it a very attractive mixed toning. The dies used for striking this coin were a rather decent attempt of duplication of the original issue but the  English legend above the crossed flags reads: "HO - HAN" with a crude looking retrograde "N". The denomination " 200 CASH" below the crossed flags is also a very crude rendering.  Examples of die struck War Lord coinages are very scarce in today's market.