Foreign Silver Coins Circulated in China

Stephen Tai
Mar.01, 1998

Since the 19^th century Chinese had gradually accustomed to foreign silver coins, more and more cities took those modern coins as their local major currency. The demands for foreign coins, instead of conventional sycee, were growing tremendous.
Foreign countries and their merchants were encouraged by such trend. Various of their own or special-tailored (#5,#6,#7,#8) silver coins were then shipped to China and its neighboring markets for profit-taking.
Actually, such foreign silver coins fever may be retracted to late 16^th century, when merchants from Portugal, Spain and Holland started introducing their coins and silver into China. Some records indicated: before 1750, 3 kinds of foreign silver coins were very popular in China, they are:
Those early foreign coins were once popular in China, but now they almost disappear, I can not find one (neither of the three) in recent years. If someone who can send me their images or tell me where to find them, would be highly appreciated.