Unusual Chinese Currency?

Nice! A Chinese sycee! Looks good to me, but I know absolutely nothing about authenticating these. Based on the weight, I'd say it is probably a 6-tael ingot, with a tael being a Chinese equivalent to an ounce.

I have a friend who is looking for one of these. PM me when you get 50 posts.

No, this one is too small to be worth several thousand dollars. That price is reserved for rare 10 tael ingots and any 20 tael+ ingots. Several hundred dollars is more likely. These consistently sell in the $200-600 range.

As for people to ask about authenticity, look for people who primarily collect and deal in Chinese coinage. Bob Ries, Scott Semans, and Frank Robinson come to mind, but there are several other out there.

Finn235, when you say there may be members on the board that could offer a translation, what does that mean. Can I contact them to request a translation? What type of board? Thank you

It is a Chinese "saddle" sycee.

Most sycee in this "saddle" shape came from Yunnan Province.

There are three sets of inscriptions but they are all the same.

The inscription is written in two vertical columns. The Chinese chararcters are read top to bottom.

The inscription in the right column reads tong chang gong ji which is the name of the company. This translates as "Tong Chang Gong Bank".

The inscription in the left column reads zu se yan ke which translates as "pure salt tax silver".

This sycee was meant to be used to pay the salt tax or salt duty.

I tried doing a quick search to see if I could find another specimen exactly the same as the OP's sycee.

I did find a sycee from the same "Tong Chang Gong Bank". If you look at this Chinese webpage, you will see that the right column inscription on the sycee is tong chang gong ji, the same as the right column inscription on the OP's sycee.

The inscription in the left column, however, is different. It reads hui hao wen yin which translates as "remittance bank fine silver".

I also found this sycee which has the same left column inscription ("pure salt tax silver") as the OP's specimen. However, this sycess is from a different company.

I have no experience and am unable to determine if the OP's specimen is authentic or not.

As we are all aware, there are many fake sycees and the good ones are also made of silver with the correct weight and purity.

(I hope the above explanation is clear even though I have not included the Chinese characters. This forum's software, unfortunately, does not display Chinese characters.)

Gary

If you look, all the ones selling in the $3000 to $10000+ range are 50 tael ingots (HUGE, 60+ oz), just a little less than 10 times the size of this one.

Thank all of you for the helpful information.

Stephen is definitely an expert in this field.

However, there is no inscription "Yuan Chang Li Firm" that I can see.

The Chinese inscription is definitely "Tong Chang Gong Ji".

You may want to check with him again.

Gary