Szechuan Round Bowl Sycee
vs. Kueichow Basket Sycee

Stephen Tai
May, 1, 1998

	Szechuan Drum Sycee Inscription: [Middle] Der Yang County [Right] Yang Sheng Firm (Silver Shop) [Left] The 21^st year of Kuang Hsu (1895, 1875-1908) Dimension: 54(L) x 61(W) mm x 28(H) Weight: 360 g (10 Taels)
	Kueichow Basket Sycee Inscription: Chi Sui (Name of Place) Guo Ji (Name of Silver Shop) Dimension: 56(L) x 63(W) mm x 30(H) Weight: 369 g

The shown 10-tael sycee in hemisphere shape, westerners are used to call them jointly as Drum Sycee. Actually, the two sycee came from different though adjacent places, and was in different terminology given by their people. #1 was called by Szechuan people as Round Bowl Sycee or Round Sycee, and #1 as Ro Ro Yin (Basket Sycee) by Kueichow people, because they were looked like round bowls and round baskets woven by bamboo slices, respectively.
The differences between Szechuan Round Bowl, and Kueichow Basket are little. If there has no inscription expressly identifying their origins, we can hardly tell from one to another.
Generally speaking, the economic scale of Szechuan is much greater than Kueichow盭, and so did it in the past, therefore, it will be more easier to find Szechuan Round Bowl Sycee than its Kueichow counterparts.