coin; pattern BM-2014-4002.1

Period:Unknown Production date:1867
Materials:silver
Technique:
Subjects:dragon heraldry


Description:
Silver pattern. It features the Chinese Imperial Dragon on one side and the British Royal Arms and Garter on the other. (whole)
IMG


Comments:The coin is part of the British colonial history of Hong Kong. It is also part of the history of silver currency throughout the world in the 19th century. Furthermore, the Hong Kong Mint provides a historical link between the UK, China and Japan. A brief history is given below. — The Hong Kong Mint was opened in 1866, with minting machinery from Birmingham, UK, and with tools supplied by the Royal Mint. It was intended that the Mint would make only silver coins, to match/replace the Mexican silver coins that circulated throughout East Asia, and especially in China. The British ideally wanted the HK Mint silver coins to be the sole form of silver accepted in custom duty payments. Tests in China demonstrated that the HK Mint coins were indeed the same quality as the Mexican silver coin. The Chinese Imperial Government agreed they could be used in Chinese custom duty payments, but that they had to compete with the Mexican silver dollar. The Chinese Government was not interested in adopting a silver coinage at this time. The HK Mint proved too expensive for the Colony to maintain, and the machinery was sold to the Japanese Imperial Government, who used it to set up the new central mint at Osaka, and thus mint the first machine-made coins in Japan.– There are several known specimens (including a piece in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation which was studied and published by Joe Cribb (Money in the Bank. An Illustrated Introduction to the Money Collection of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, London 1987, p. 34). Featured as a new acquisition in the British Museum Magazine, Spring/Summer 2014, p. 11: “Limited time. In the 1860s, Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of Hong Kong, introduced a new currency for Hong Kong. The new coins were made at the Royal Mint in London and shipped across the world. A few years later, a brand new state-of-the-art mint was built in Hong Kong, much to the envy of the mintworkers in London. Could this new mint produce silver dollar coins to rival the ubiquitous Mexican dollar? Operations began in 1866, and coins of exceptional quality were made, including this new acquisition, featuring a Chinese dragon and the British Royal Arms and Garter design. The production costs were too high and in 1868 the Mint was closed. For the new Meiji government in Japan, the timing could not have been better: The Hong Kong Mint was dismantled, the equipment and specialist personnel were shipped to Osaka, and in 1871 Japan launched its new currency, the yen.” Illustrated, and captioned “Shanghai tael, silver dollar coin, Hong Kong Mint, 1867, acquired with assistance from the Brooke Sewell Fund.”