Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-09-20


size and weight, and differ only in the
amounts stamped upon them. The
amount Of the 10-cent piece is ~ can
dareens, and the scent piece 3.6 can
dareens. Their table of gold and sill
yer runs, 10 cash equal one candareen,
10 candareen equal I mace, 10 mace
equal l tael, l tael equals sos grains
troy silver.
Taxes and duties are paid in ingots
of silver bullion, which are called
shoes of sycee," from the Chinese
word si-sz, meaning fine floss" They
vary in weight from 5 mace to 50
taels. This silver is the condemned
foreign silver dollars that have been
so repeatedly stamped and mutilated
that they are OF no further use as
coins. They are principally the ones
imported from Mexico and California
and stamped by the merchants pay
ing them out. They are melted and
refined, and the silver rates about 80
per cent fineness. They are nodded
in the form Of shoe, and hence the
name of "shoes of sycee." Gold is
cast in small bars, about the size OF a
cake Of India ink, or sometimes it is
fiattened into thin leaves to avoid de-
ception and dishonesty, and these are
fastened together by the hundreds and
used in commercial exchange as gold
bar.
Counterfeiters fairly infest China.
Not infrequently do the mint masters
conniye at the fraud and boldly assist
the counterfeiters. Counterfeiting has
become so marked a feature in the
currency OF China that a regular line
OF business Of inspecting silver has
been established, and the detectors,
called "shroffs," are so expert that
| they can detect the slightest alloy
| just from the color of the coin or in
got When the English first establish
! ed tn themselves in Canton each Chinese
merchant carried his own private
money scales and made change en-
tirely by weight. If he had no small
coins wherewith to make exact change,
he simply Clipped a piece from off
another coin. All the small chips
were preserved as change, without
specified value.
Within the last five or six years sill
yer has been extensively coined in
China, and has superseded the copper
cash. the only purely Chinese coin. up
to the advent of the foreigners. This
copper piece, called Tsien, originally
weighed a mace or about one-tenth
of a tael. 1t was a circular coin a lit
tie more than an inch in diameter and
had square hole in the center for
convenience in carrying 1t on a string.
The coin has been so reduced in size
and debased in value that instead of
weighing 57.9S grains troy, or l mace,
it weighs generally about 80 grains.
st present the coin is about the size
OF oar 25-cent piece and about one-half
| the thickness. IL has two Chinese
words on the diverse side, "pao," or
current" and the name of the pro-
vince in which 1t is coined. On the re-
verse side there are four words a free
translation of which is money cur
rent during the reign of raukwang,"
or whatever the emperor's name in
whose reign the coin was issued.
The normal value of the copper cash
to-day ranges from 900 to 800 to the
silver dollar. or about one-tenth of
cent; a decided decrease in value from
that of the original coin. Copper cash
is minted by the government and put
in circulation through the payment of
soldiers and government officials.
MINIS are established in each pro-
vincial capital, under the direction of
the board of revenue. There is a
government standard of copper alloy,
50 zine, Az: lead, 6la, and tin, 2.
But the government itself Is so dis
honest that even this cheap coin has
been debased by the introduction of
iron. without legal recognition. The
exchange between copper cash and sill
yer is determined by the quantity of
| copper cash in circulation This va
rles in the different provinces: as,
/ for instance, in 1898 in Picking $50
large cash could be obtained for l
| kung ia tael, while 117O Shanghai
cash could be purchased for the same
amount and in Wuhu 1920 was OBJ
| tainable, while in Shantung l,210 could
be purchased Copper cash has in
creased in value since the closing of
the India minis, and their Importance
as coin has been superseded by the
subsidiary silver coinage issued by
Ghemints at rien-tsin, Nuchang, Foo
chow and Canton.
The silver coins are neat and con-
venient, and but for the fiuctuating
value that makes the monetary basis
OF China as unstable as all else con-
nected with this intricate kingdom,
the system of coinage would be most
satisfactory,
In 1851 to 1861 the Emperor Hien
Fung issued a copper coin equal in
value to 10 copper cash, This is one
of the coins sought after by collectors,
as are also specimens of the iron cash
issued about the same time. II was
at first received as of equal value
with the copper cash but II was soon