Help With ID On 2 Chinese Silver Sycees / Ingots

I'm not familiar with sycees but I'll try to help with the translation.

1.1 (right) fa cai "fortune"
(bottom) zu yin "fine silver"
(top) too small to read but may say "made in (or by) Dong Chang"
(left) too small to read

1.2 unable to see any characters or design

1.3 (top) er liang "two taels"
(right) zu yin "fine silver"
(bottom) zhao cai jin bao "money and treasures will be plentiful"
(left) dong chang "Dong Chang" (name of silversmith or city)
(middle) fa "to issue"

2.1 zu yin "fine silver"

2.2 guang xu yuan bao "the same inscription that is found on silver coins issued during reign of the Guangxu Emperor (Emperor De Zong) 1875-1908

2.3 two dragons playing with a flaming pearl

2.4 zhao cai jin bao "money and treasures will be plentiful"

You may want to determine if these are really silver. Some of the inscriptions are what one typically finds on "charms" and souvenirs. Also, the first one states its weight as "two taels" but seems too heavy at 105 grams to be silver.

Gary

Thanks very much for the info. guys!

I have seen a few examples that are similar to these that are legitimate, but a lot hangs on the truth of them actually being bought originally in the 1970's to them being authentic.

Manymore - thanks very much for the translation, a big help. Should hopefully give me a lot to work with in taking any research further. Hard to tell if they are indeed solid silver or not - perhaps a jeweller or similar will be able to make a test.

Tokenmast - thanks for that link, i'll start reading around the topic of Sycees a bit more. Any idea how I might go about testing the silver content?

These two types are common fakes sold on ebay. They should be some type of base metal alloy with no silver at all. Two taels which one is marked traditionally is about 37.5 grams and that piece would be made about 1946 as a gift. During that time a tael could also be very close to a Troy ounce at 31 grams. So two taels would be 62 to 75 grams, not over 100 grams for sure. Who would be going to China during the 1970's China? They were in turmoil with the Cultural Revolution which antiquities were destroyed. Go to any souvenir shop in a Chinatown in North America and you'll finds these copies for sale. Cheers! CP