[1] His book The Currencies of China (1926) was "immediately the standard work on the subject of metallic currencies in China"[2] Kann was born in Misslitz of Czech lands under Austria-Hungary.
[3][4] In 1902 he left Vienna to work for a London bank in China.
He was general manager of the Chinese-American Bank of Commerce from 1921.
Between 1925 and 1949 he was an independent bullion broker in Shanghai, but interned by the Japanese (1941–42).
After 1949 he taught briefly at Loyola University in Los Angeles, then retired to Hollywood.