Jiangsi Square Sycee

Stephen Tai
Apr.11, 1998

Inscription: Wan Nien County, The 10^th month, the 25^th year of Kuang Hsu period (1899, 1875-1908). Weighed 50 tael. [Cast by] Silversmith Nie Hung.
Dimension: 84 (L) x 72 (W) x 61 (H) mm
Weight: 1872 g (50 taels)

Most Chinese sycee in 50 taels were made for taxation, huge transactions, and remittance business and other occasions which required for silver payments made in a larger unit. And most of the 50-tael sycee were made in Yuan Bao (boat or shoe) shape, however, Jiangsi square sycee was an exception, they are square or rectangular. Chinese used to call it Fang Bao, means the square treasure.
Apart from the shape, the regional characteristics of Jiangsi square sycee also included the way how it was inscribed. Each character of the inscription was stamped on with a single chop. Take the shown one for instance, there are 17 Chinese characters on it, the silversmith had used 17 different chops for the inscriptions. It is not like Yuan Bao, where only few chops were used, each chop consisted of many characters. It had saved silversmiths a lot of effort in dealing with inscriptions.
Jiangsi square sycee is obviously fewer than Yuang Bao sycee, the coin markets also have already reflected such a fact onto the prices of the two 50-tael sycee.

A Silver Sycee Review