China Yunnan 50 Cents = 3 Mace 6 Candareens 1916 Tang Ji-Yao Commemorative Silver Coin
L&M-862; K-674; Y-480; WS-0693.
Obverse: Chief of the Army Tang; in Chinese - head of Tang Ji Yao - right profile.
Reverse: In memory of a Protector of the Republic, K'uping 3 Mace and 6 candareens; in Chinese - military and national flags crossed, star above.
Tang Jiyao (simplified Chinese: 唐继尧; traditional Chinese: 唐繼堯; pinyin: Táng Jìyáo; Wade–Giles: T'ang Chi-yao) (1883 – May 23, 1927) was a Chinese general and warlord of Yunnan during the Warlord Era of Republican China. Tang Jiyao was military governor of Yunnan from 1913-1927.
Mace
A mace (Chinese: 錢; pinyin: qián; Hong Kong English usage: tsin; Southeast Asian English usage: chee) is a traditional Chinese measurement of weight in East Asia that was also used as a currency denomination. It is equal to 10 candareens and is 1⁄10 of a tael or approximately 3.78 grams. A troy mace is approximately 3.7429 grams. In Hong Kong, one mace is 3.779936375 gramme. and in Ordinance 22 of 1884, it is 2⁄15 oz. avoir. In Singapore, one mace (referred to as chee) is 3.77994 grammes.
In imperial China, 10 candareens equaled 1 mace which was 1⁄10 of a tael and, like the other units, was used in weight-denominated silver currency system. A common denomination was 7 mace and 2 candareens, equal to one silver Chinese yuan.
Like other similar measures such as tael and catty, the English word "mace" derives from Malay, in this case through Dutch maes, plural masen, from Malay mas which, in turn, derived from Sanskrit māṣa, a word related to "mash," another name for the urad bean, and masha, a traditional Indian unit of weight equal to 0.97 gram. This word is unrelated to other uses of mace in English.
The Chinese word for mace is qian (Chinese: 錢; pinyin: qián), which is also a generic word for "money" in Mandarin Chinese. (The same Chinese character (kanji) was used for the Japanese sen, the former unit equal to 1⁄100 of a Japanese yen and for the Vietnamese tiền, a currency used in late imperial Vietnam, although neither of these has ever been known as "mace" in English.)
Candareen
A candareen (Chinese: 分; pinyin: fēn; Cantonese Yale: fàn; Singapore English usage: hoon) is a traditional measurement of weight in East Asia. It is equal to 10 cash and is 1/10 of a mace. It is approximately 378 milligrams. A troy candareen is approximately 374 milligrams.
In Hong Kong, one candareen is 0.3779936375 gramme and, in the Weights and Measures Ordinance, it is 2⁄150 oz. avoir. In Singapore, one candareen is 0.377994 grams.
The name candareen comes from the Malay kandūri. An earlier English form of the name was condrin. The candareen was also formerly used to describe a unit of currency in imperial China equal to 10 li (釐) and is 1/10 of a mace. The Mandarin Chinese word fēn is currently used to denote 1/100th of a Chinese renminbi yuan but the term candareen for currency is now obsolete.