The origin of sycees, commonly known as 'yuan-pao" or "yin-ting" in Chinese, dates back to the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960 - 1280) where the extensive economic growth puts a heavy strain on China's currency resources. Hence to reduce the demand on bronze (used for the making of coins), silver in the form of ingots were introduced. Unlike coins, sycees are not circulated and were used for large monetary settlements between banks, merchants and other official transactions. Sycees were also hoarded as a means to accumulate wealth until their use was banned by the Chinese Nationalist government in 1935.

Sycees ingots were casted in molds and the inscriptions were impressed with a seal while the silver was still semi-molten. The silver smiths , known as "lu-fang" cast the sycees in a variety of shapes such as rectangular, square, drum, boat, double axe head and hour glass. The latter shapes the oldest types of sycees known.

Sycees have no denomination. The value is determined by its weight in taels ranging from 1 taels to 50 taels. One tael (e-liang) is equivalent to 37.312 gms. During the early reign of Emperor Shunzhi (A.D. 1644 -1661), a tael would fetch roughly about 700 pieces of one cash copper coins .

Listed below are links to our sycees catalog

Sycee categories	Sycee categories
1) Saddle Shape Sycees 2) Drum Shape Sycees 3) Square Trough Shape Sycees 4) Dish Shape Sycees	5) Round Shape Sycees 6) Boat Shape Sycees 7) Hen's nest Shape Sycees 8) Other Shape Sycees

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