An Interesting Szechuan Round Bowl Sycee

Stephen Tai
Sep, 19, 1998

Szechuan Drum Sycee
Inscriptions:

Tong Liang Xian

Jiang Heng Tai Yu

Heng-Tai-Yu

^th

Kuang Hsu

Juan Shu

Dimensions: 59(L) x 66(W) mm x 19(H)
Weight: 378 g (10 Taels)

Recently, I bought a 10-tael Szechuan Round Bowl (Some people call it "Drum") sycee, as shown. It has an odd appearance different from other specimens of the kind; its edge is supposed to be in upright like other's, but was flattened by its user in the past, as a result, it is looked much bigger than it used to be. Besides, its back was cut.
Despite of the "surgeries" laid upon it, however, we also can discover some of its beauties. Its inscriptions were not harmed, every strokes still are left in good condition and enabled us to recognize them precisely. Most of all, the inscriptions provide us with many background information about the sycee, which I consider as more valuable. The inscriptions as of the 3 stamps containing 4 important messages, severally are:
1. The place where the sycee cast
2. The year when the sycee cast
3. The silversmith who cast the sycee
4. The title of the tax that the sycee was levied for
These are the maximum messages we can ever get from a Szechuan Round Bowl sycee.
Unlike machine struck coins, sycee is not only a kind of currency relied on the mintage and condition to tell its market value, more important, it is a historic work that impossible for us to know how many they are, and its market value also has to depend on how many messages of historical value it brings. At lease, this is how I evaluate a sycee before I collect it.
The dealer sold me this sycee was worrying about its poor condition, he quoted $150 - about the half for the same kind of sycee in better shape. I bought it without hesitation. No matter why its former user tried to change its shape, in the years while this sycee was still in circulation, it was valued merely by its weigh and silver finesse, not by shape. Now for me, I suppose that the being of this sycee is faithful to what it used to be, and carrying valuable enough messages, with such kind of price, it is definitely worth buying.

Silver Sycee