A little word about saddle sycee:

Saddle sycee first came into use in the trade market of Yunnan during around the 10th year of Kuang Hsu (1884AD), and since then it had become the standard trade silver type of the region and one of the most common type among all Chinese sycees. Being a particular regional type of the sycee family , saddle sycee once had a golden era of use in the opium trade, it was born with the most advanced silver assaying system at the time and became a highly developed form of (silver) currency in China's numismatic history. Despite that saddle sycee was originated from Yunnan of China, it once played a significant role in trade market in many neighbourhood countries like Thailand, Burma, Laos and Vietnam.  Up to now, the most important and most convincing theory about Saddle sycee is Mr. Stephen Tai's book "The Legendary Currency of The Late Ching Dynasty - A Study on Yunnan Saddle Sycee".

Saddle sycee comes in great variety but basically it can be classified into two categories: specimens casted in Capital Kunming and those casted from its outer neighborhood regions, both were appeared during the 10th year of Kuang Hsu and circulated until the Early Republic period (1912). The silver casting firms (or known as local private banks) from Kunming produced the majority of the saddle sycees left today. They developed a well-known assaying system which required no less than two assayers for the assaying job and each assayer must show his name on his assaying chop to carry out individual responsibility. The new system turned out to be successful and later soon became standardized in the province, as it ensured the standard fineness (98%) of the saddle sycee and thus made the silver (sycee) a trustworthy product to be used in trade. In contrast, the so-called "outer-city" type, were casted by a number of firms located in the outer region of Kunming who also had silver-casting business and as well ran an old assaying system, which was gradually became outdated after the Kunming group introduced their new system. As the result, the sycee carrying the assaying chops stamped by the "outer-city" firms became commonly aversed by people using silver for their business due to insufficient silver content, and started withdrawing from the market not long after its introduction. In general, except for some rare examples, the existing number of the "outer-city" type is much smaller than the former.

About this item

This is a specimen casted by Kunming firms. The "Public Assayer" title on the assaying chop was first in use during around the 20th year of Kuang Hsu (1894AD), and like the most from this type, three assayer's names are shown on the assaying chop which indicates that the sycee was checked by each of the three named assayers. However different from others, this saddle has an additional assaying chop. "雲瑞" (Yun Rui) was the first name of "馬雲瑞" (Ma-Yun-Rui) who was the owner of a silver firm in outer-city area and was the assayer himself there . According to the expert, as Kunming city and its outer neighborhood had different assaying system, they did not recognize and either allow any other saddle sycee to be circulated in their region, other than those assayed only by themselves. Given as such, the only way to allow a saddle sycee to be circulated in the "opposite side", is to re-assay the piece, it would therefore need to have an additional assaying chop in order to be qualified. This saddle sycee, bearing the additional assaying chop stamped by the outer-city assayer Ma-Yun-Rui, is a very rare Double-Assayed specimen which can be considered as an excellent representing piece of the "Kunming & Its outer regions" theory mentioned above.

Payment & Shipping

Post to Worldwide. The following postage rule applies to all countries including Singapore: Shipping cost by Regular Air Mail is AU$7.50(SG$10.00) and by EMS is AU$41.50(SG$53.00).  Each addtional item will cost an extra of AU$4.00(SG$5.00) on postage. Post Insurance is AU$25.00(SG$31.00) and is optional at buyer's request.

I accept Bank Transfer and Paypal. Buyer will receive a notice e-mail regarding the payment details. I do have other sycees available for offer so please check out my other items. If you have interest on this item and wish to know more information about it, or just need a large-sized photo, please feel free to contact me at any time. All questions are welcomed to ask.