- Shown sycee is the 3rd sycee of Shaanxi author found cast in the weight of
50 taels or so, and the 1st one cast in the reign year of the
Ching Dynasty. The
other two specimens were cast in the Republican period (1912-1949) which may
be referred to Yuan Bao Tu Lu (A Catalogue of Chinese
Sycee), published in
1991 by Chinese Numismatic Association, Shaanxi Branch in the People’s
Republic of China.
- The weight of the sycee is equal to 47 taels, which is about 100 g or 3 taels less
than ordinary boats of other provinces in China. This intriguing weight
difference could be not owing to an independent incidence, yet triggered by
the custom of the Islamic residents of the place. Shaanxi,
Gansu and
Xinjiang are remote provinces of China which have been resided with many
Islamic since centuries ago. According to the practice of Xinjiang where is
adjacent to Shaanxi, there were bigger boat sycee used to be cast in 47
taels, with only few exceptions adopting the weight scale of Han tribe cast
in 50 taels. This sycee should be cast under the influence of Islamic people
of the areas.
- It is noticeable that the upper stamp used here is kind of square stamp
also seen on Shaanxi Groovy Silver weighed for 4-6 taels. Their legends all
comprised of 4 letters (some Groovy Silver have 6), 2 on county name, and 2
on silver shop/smith. This shows Shaanxi silversmiths characterized their
sycee, small ones or big ones, with similar square chops.
- As previously mentioned, only two specimens of Shaanxi in about 50 taels
have been recorded for the time being, and they were both cast in the period
of the Republic of China. Why their counterparts cast in Ching Dynasty all
disappear? Looking back to the history of Shaanxi, it and the neighboring
province - Gansu, out-broke a 13-year Islamic Rebellion (1862-1874) throughout
the whole period of Tong Zhi reign, where were mostly occupied by the rebel
most of the time, people were massacred or escaped, until became ghost
towns. Shaanxi, in Chinese near modern history, was a place seldom absent
from civil wars which rooted its poverty and underdevelopment, despite it
was the origin of the ancient Chinese civilization. 13 years of turbulence
and war further exhausted its economy, vanished the last glory it had. In
the 2nd year of Hsien Feng (1852. 1851-1861) the governor had reported to
the Emperor that "Shaanxi is a poor place where grains won't grow, and no mines
to be explored ...", "... Most of the people don't have silver to pay tax, many of
them used only cash coins and don't even have the luxury to see a piece of
silver for once in their lives ...", "... Some better-off would have to melt
their wives' silver accessories for silver ingots to pay tax ...". For a long
time, Shaanxi government could not even live on local tax levy for their
daily operation, needless to say submit any tax silver to the Emperor. Since
the beginning of Ching Dynasty, the financial needs of Shaanxi government
had been largely relying on the support from the Central Government and
other provinces.
- Naturally, bigger or heavier sycee like 50 taels in Shaanxi were rarely
cast, for no such need from the markets. We can even imagine that if a
50-tael sycee was brought to there, to cope with the limited economic scale
in the region, it would have to be cut into pieces for circulation.
Any additional information highly appreciated.
Chinese Coinage Web Site
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