A 50-Tael Yuanbao
from Shanghai Foreign Concession

Stephen Tai
June, 05, 1998

Inscription:
Chin Tai Shen Ji - name of silver shop

Si (Four) - the number of furnace used in the cast of the Yuanbao

Dimensions: 118(L) x 64(W) x 85(H) mm
Weight: 1828 g (50 taels)

Consequent to the Opium War, in the 25^th year of Tao Kuang reign (1845, 1821-1830), Shanghai with other 4 harbor cities were forced to open to Great Britain, and thereafter many other western countries. A certain area in Shanghai was then restored as foreign concession where foreigners were allowed to reside there and was vigorous in commercial activities and international trades.
More and more Chinese made their business in the foreign concession, some even immigrated there. Before long, the foreign concession had become the major economic center in Shanghai, as a result, traditional Chinese sycee currency were also adopted there.
In regardless of silver coins, e.g. Spanish colonial, Mexican, and various native ones having been widely circulated large area of China, including Shanghai, the association of monetary business in Shanghai still boycotted the silver coins, and insisted in using sycee as their uniformed payment method and the base money for book keeping, sycee were made in bulks, transferred here and there among hundreds of local and foreign banks on a daily basis, after they balanced accounts.
Shanghai silver currency mostly were made of sterling silver imported from America and Great Britain, which were normally silver bars in their unit weight of 1,000 taels. Native silver shops had to cut and melt them first, then to cast them in according to the shape, weight and finess their demanded.
People in Shanghai used to call those sycee made in the foreign concession as Yi Chiang Hsin , which means the new kind of sycee cast in the foreign concession. The shown sycee was one of the kind, it appears that no date nor place were inscribed, except for name of silver shop and the number of furnace were shown on its face.

Sycee Review

A 50-Tael Yuanbao from Shanghai Foreign Concession

A 50-Tael Yuanbao
from Shanghai Foreign Concession