Page 29 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

arabesque design with the Chinese symbol for longevity in the centre, and the
denomination in two languages - Chinese and Jawi Malay. Those marked with ‘C’ were
minted in Calcutta and those with ‘B’ at the Bombay mint. The fineness was 0.900 silver,
although the original trial coin was minted in 0.925 silver.

A 1906 British silver trade dollar

When designing the coin, it was decided not to have an image of Queen Victoria as it was
not considered politic to portray an empress on a coin to be used in a country ruled by an
emperor. Well over 267,200,000 British trade dollars are known to have been struck and
circulated from the two Indian mints, but several re-strikes are known to have happened
although scant records of these exist.

As trade dollars from all sources entered China, merchants would apply their ‘chop mark’
in order to guarantee authenticity and content. It was also a cunning way for merchants to
advertise. Payment for invoices issued in China often called for ‘first chop’ coins - coins