Kueichow Half-ball Silver

Stephen Tai
May, 30, 1998

Inscription: Kueichow Official Monetary Bureau
In the Ku scale
1 Tael
Pure Silver

Diameter: 27 mm
Weight: 36.4 g

The shown silver is in a shape of half-ball which was an official issuance by the Kueichow government in the 1^st year of Hsuan Tung (1908).
Its inscriptions clearly indicate the finess, scale and weight of the silver, those attributes entailed by a modern coinage. As a result, such silver may be deemed as kind of silver "coin", but in a shape beyond most people's expectation.
Such an innovative standardized silver currency did not, however, have any influence on the coinage development of then China. It is because such silver was just a local issuance, construed no binding to other provinces. Another reason could be, in China, for a long time people had been allowed to cast silver alloy as currency, they were circulated according to their actual weight and purity, the two factors deciding the value of the currency. The government did not undertake to pay for the workmanship of making sycee, and that is why silver making or silver refining business became booming in ancient China and without a break. Once the government decided to issue official silver currency like the shown one, it would be an obstacle for them to do so: No profit to be gained, yet, expense to be paid.
The issuance of the shown official silver was obviously a failure, the Kueichow government ceased making it in a very short time from the silver was initially introduced into market. Therefore, few were left to now.