1.5 TAEL SILVER SYCEE INGOT 54.5 GRAMS

Description

1.5 TAEL SILVER SYCEE INGOT 54.5 GRAMS
Although examples are known from the T'ang Dynasty or earlier, the main period of sycee use was c. 1750-1933. Cribb quotes J.R. Morrison (1832) in defining "Sycee silver, in Chinese 'Wan-yin', is the only approach to a silver currency among the Chinese. In it the government taxes and duties, and the salaries of officers, are paid; and it is also current among merchants in general...This silver is formed into ingots (called shoes), which are stamped with the mark of the office that issues them, and the date of their issue. The ingots are of various weights, but mostly of ten taels each."
Sycee of the main period was refined from .900-fine Spanish-American 8 Reales to an intended standard of .980
, although some sycee have assayed at .992, and Chinese bankers were able to distinguish by color, and reject, pieces as low as .965-.970. Weights were expressed in Taels (ounces) the standard varying throughout the country but ranging around 37 grams, although no attempt was made to create sycee of
exactly
50, 10, 5, etc. Taels, since each piece was weighed anyway at each transaction.
YUANSI - SNAIL or SHAN SYCEE
Also nicknamed Chocolate Drop Sycee,
Yuansi
(fine silk) ingots were cast in round-bottomed round or oval molds and tapped as the metal was cooling to form unusually fine concentric rings on the surface. Raised rims, when present, are irregular. They are probably all from Yunnan province, or possibly even Burma and Thailand. Mitchiner attribute them to the Shan border states of Burma. Cribb discusses and catalogs forged stamps which appear on genuine sycee types circulating in Thailand and Burma. While this may have been done in the 1960-70s as Cribb speculates, this would not rule out a motive of making the sycee more acceptable in
opium-producing areas, where these types clearly circulated.
Purchased from Scott Semans 12/27/08.  For more information, see:
Sycee - Wikipedia
Tael - Wikipedia
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