- This is a mini sycee cast in an excellent shoe shape, an uniq piece weighed
for 3.7 g (1 mace). Its details are as vivid as other big sycee in 50 taels,
i.e. sized by 500 times.
- Generally speaking, sycee in a small value like that should be more
demanded by markets for daily trades, but we can imagine how difficult it
would be for silversmiths to make sycee in miniature at that time, and the
casting cost would be respectively high. Under such circumstance, smaller
sycee were first to be replaced by foreign fractional silver coins in
similar weights, which were minted less costly and more convenient to be
used. As for bigger sycee in 10 or 50 taels, due to their heavy weight
diluted the casting cost to a degree more acceptable, plus there were no
silver coins in such giant sizes competing with them directly, they survived
in the markets for much longer.
Silver Sycee
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- 'silver'