When Did All The Chopmarked Coins Leave China?

I recall no Soviet/Communist chops at all.

I went back over the thread. Several comments as a result.

I have to correct a few factual errors I made in my initial replies. They were caused by laziness and are my fault for relying on my memory alone.

The Spink's article I referred to is actually found in Appendix 2 of my book starting on page 537.

The original article in English cab be found the Spink and Son's, Monthly Numismatic Circular (9-10) dated September - October, 1915. It is one of the first numismatic works to address the origin of the chop marks applied by the Chinese Schroffs during the preceding 100 years. It was originally written in French by M. Paul Bordeaux for the French Numismatic Review in 1903.

The facts that can be derived from the article are that:

1. Chops were added to silver coins entering China about 1800 (roughly 100 years before the Bordeaux article) as a direct response of the large number of false Piastres which originated in England after 1796. These Piastres were usually imprinted with the portrait of Charles IV.

2. At least until a period of time AFTER the end of the opium wars (after 1850), chop marked coins were rarely seen outside of China. That was due to Bordeaux's view that China retained a net positive balance of trade surplus with the west which could be paid without exporting silver (the preferred metal in China).

3. By the last decade of the 19th century there were enough chop marked coins seen outside China to warrant an Article.

4. It is my belief that the drop in world silver prices to under 30 cents an ounce in 1893, was most likely the cause for large exports of silver from China. They became cognizant of the shifting gold silver ratio on world markets and began exporting silver for that reason.

Other inferences that I can draw are:

1. I suspect that something similar to the 1893 action (export of silver with Chop marks) occurred in the mid-1930s due to the People's Republic pressure on older silver coinages and a second drop in world silver prices to the 30 cents per ounce level.

2. The retreat of the Nationalist Chinese from the mainland is as suggested above is a likely source for silver remaining on the mainland which was sold when world prices rose above $2 an ounce. As I recall the bags originated in Honk Kong but that memory is vague. In the late 1960's direct mail from China was somewhat restricted.

I hope this summary will assist the average reader to see that chop marked silver resulted from a specific event at an historic point in time and that the release of chop marked silver was not a uniform trickle of coins but more likely was a large (wholesale) release of silver for financial reasons tied to world metal markets.

wizened In 1935 restrictions on use of foreign silver coins in mainland China should have terminated the need for chops in the sense that they were used earlier. Chops originally were to confirm silver content present in imported coins. A coin dated 1935 with a chop is a bit anomalous. It has no "official" reason for existence since foreign silver did not circulate legally in business.

It could simply be someone altering a coin in the hope of adding value.