The China Pattern Tael Struck in Silver was issued by the Hu Poo (Board of Revenue) during the reign of Kuang Hsu, Year 29 (1903). Although struck at the Tientsin Mint, the original dies were ordered from and prepared by the Osaka Mint in Japan under the supervision of Robert Hart, Inspector General of Maritime Customs. The initial goal was an early attempt to unify Chinese coinage on the gold standard, producing denominations in 1 Tael, 5, 2, 1 and 1/2 Mace. The project never went into full production for several reasons. One being that the outlined plan called for one central mint to be responsible for coinage production to insure the uniformity of the new coinage, which the directors of the provincial mints heavily resisted due to potential profit cuts.