A Good Sycee and A Bad Sycee

Stephen Tai
Apr.12, 1998

	Inscription: Wen Yin, Wen Yin (Fine Silver) Dimension: 64 (L) x 30 (W) x 16 (H) mm Weight: 150 g (4 taels)
	Inscription: None Dimension: 55 (L) x 29 (W) x 9 (H) mm Weight: 89 g (2 taels and 5 maces)

For westerners sycee has been a noun generically representing Chinese silver ingots circulated in the old China. As for Chinese, as matter of fact, word sycee means tiny, delicate waves or wrinklesž, which is a symptom of silver in good purity.
In Chinese society not every silver ingots had the privilege in bearing the name of sycee, unless its purity up to certain level. A booklet regarding silver authenticity written by an unknown author who had been a silver shop owner in Beijing during the years of Chieng Lung (1736-1895), recorded sycee as a kind of silver with its purity up to 95% (then standard). Thereafter, however, the definition of sycee in China seems to be varying all the time.
Chinese in the past had a common knowledge about authenticating silver. They all knew that those tiny waves are not only normal, but also necessary for a good silver, besides, the intervals between each wave are essential, too. The smaller the intervals are, the higher purity silver has. Normally, a silver in purity less than 90% can hardly have any wave there.
The shown 2 silver are both in the late Ming to early Ching dynasty pattern. No.1 has lots of delicate waves with small intervals, which might have been qualified as sycee in the past, its inscription of Wen Yin (Fine Silver) also has articulated such fact. No.2 has less waves with larger intervals, which indicates that it is in an inferior purity. It is quite possible that No.2 was not recognized by then as sycee.

A Silver Sycee Review