A Vietnamese Silver Bar

Stephen Tai
Apr.08, 1998

Dimensions: 116(L) x 29(W) x 12(H)
Weight: 368 g (10 Taels)
Obverse: 3 inscriptions, from top to down, severally are Ming Min, Kuei Sze, Hsing An. The first two inscriptions jointly mean: The Year of Kuei Sze in Ming Min Period (i.e. the 13^th year of Tao Kuang or 1833 AD); the third inscription Hsin An should be the name of silver shop.
Reverse: Engraved character Ji.
Left Side: Jong Ping [meaning unknown]
Right Side: Kong Sheng [meaning unknown]
Front End: Kang, means checked.

The shown 10-tael silver bar was an official silver currency circulated in the years of Ming Min reign. Besides, there were other similar silver bars made of different weight standards such as 5 taels, 1 tael, even a few maces circulated in then and after, until 1886 when Vietnam was ceded to France by Chinese.
Such kind of silver bar also had been brought to and circulated in China during late Ching dynasty.

A Silver Sycee Review