Date: Qing (AD 1644-1911)
Dimensions: Diameter 41.75 mm
Material: Silver
Donated by Wang Kangyuan

• Object Type：
  • COINS
• Tag：
  • guangdong guangxu tael longevity qing silver

Silver was generally cast into the silver ingot in the Qing dynasty and put in circulation in the tael system, in two different forms: real and virtual silver. It was extremely inconvenient in practice due to the fact that different forms and criteria of arbitrage transaction rates were applied in different regions and conversion was needed frequently in the process. During the Daoguang reign period, silver coins forged by imitating foreign machine made coins appeared in today’s Fujian and Taiwan areas. In the 10th year of the Guangxu period, Jilin province initiated the production of machine made coins. In the 16th year of the Guangxu period (AD 1890), Guangdong began to cast a new silver coin—Guangxu Yuanbao. Since then, all the provinces began to cast it one after another and put it in circulation together with the silver tael. 
This coin got its name for the character ‘Shou (longevity)’ inscribed in official script on the back. The denomination is Kuping One-teal (the benchmark for taxes and levies of the Qing government). It has two major versions classified by the positive and negative lines of wings of the bat carved on the front side. It was said that this kind of coin was cast in Guangdong in the 31st year of Guangxu period (AD 1905) for the celebration of Empress Dowager Cixi's 70th birthday, therefore only few were handed down.