- Gansu Province situated at the center of great China, was the East End
of the ancient Silk-road.
- In Ching Dynasty, sycee cast and circulated in Gansu are very hard to
find now, due to its little population and low economic activities.
- 2 different types of sycee are known as the local patterns of Gansu, i.e.,
Groove Silver and Peanut Silver as shown in No.1, No.2, respectively.
- Apparently, Gansu Groove was influenced by the Shaanxi pattern (No.3), the
Groove Silvers cast in these 2 adjacent provinces are basically the same,
and their weight standards were both in the range of 4-6 taels. Except that
Gansu Groove is looked cruder.
- Compared to Groove, Gansu Peanut is a pattern characterized more by the
locality, it is looked like a peanut and was cast in 2 taels normally. But,
as matter of fact, Gansu Peanut was resembled Honan Waist (No.4), a sycee
pattern adopted mainly in Honan, a place not close to Gansu, and each
weighed around 5 taels. Therefore, Gansu natives named their derivatives as
Small Waists. This intriguing co-instance might have something to do with
many Honan immigrants in Gansu.
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