The Canton Mint (Chinese: 廣東造幣廠 ;Cantonese Jyutping: gwong2 dung1 zou6 bai6 cong2) also romanised as Kwangtung Mint was a mint located in Guangdong (Canton), China, which produced coinage at the discretion of the Guangdong 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.
[2][3] Designed in England the new Canton Mint constructed in Chinese style was opened by Viceroy Zhang Zhidong on 25 May 1889 at a total cost of 1 million dollars.
[citation needed] In its opening year, the mint produced the first Chinese Silver Dragon coins, which were based on Japanese and Korean designs.
[5] The minted closed in 1931 and later briefly re-opened by the Kuomintang in 1949 before their retreat to Taiwan.