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A sycee 〔 Also (rarely spelt ) ''sisee'', ''seze''; first attested in the early 18th century.〕 was a type of silver or gold ingot currency used in China until the 20th century. The name derives from the Cantonese word meaning "fine silk"〔Morse, Hosea Ballou. Piry, A. Théophile. () (1908). The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire. Longmans, Green, and co publishing. Page 148. (Digitized text on Google Books ), no ISBN〕 (presumably ), as quality silver was supposed to have a silky sheen. In Chinese, they are called ''yuanbao'' (, abbreviation of ''Kaiyuan tongbao''). Sycee were made by individual silversmiths for local exchange; consequently, the shape and amount of extra detail on each ingot were highly variable. Square and oval shapes were common, but boat, flower, tortoise and others are known. Sycees were not denominated or made by a central mint. Their value—like the value of the various silver coins and little pieces of silver in circulation at the end of the Qing dynasty—was determined by experienced moneyhandlers (shroffs), who estimated the appropriate discount based on the purity of the silver and evaluated the weight in taels and the progressive decimal subdivisions of the tael (mace, candareen and cash). ==History== Sycees were first used as a medium for exchange as early as the Qin Dynasty (3rd century BC). During the Tang Dynasty, a standard bi-metallic system of silver and copper coinage was codified with 10 silver coins equal to 1,000 copper cash coins. Tang-dynasty coins were inscribed and named ''Kai tong'' (); later abbreviated to ''yuan-bao'', the name was applied to other non-coin forms of currency. ''Yuanbao'' was spelt ''yamboo'' and ''yambu''〔"(Shoe of Gold )" in ''Hobson-Jobson'', p. 830〕 in the 19th-century English-language literature on Xinjiang and the trade between Xinjiang and British India. Paper money and bonds started to be used in China in the 9th century. However, due to monetary problems such as enormous local variations in monetary supply and exchange rates, rapid changes in the relative value of silver and copper, coin fraud, inflation, and political uncertainty with changing regimes, until the time of the Republic payment by weight of silver was the standard practice, and merchants carried their own scales with them. Most of the so-called "opium scales" seen in museums were actually for weighing payments in silver. The tael was still the basis of the silver currency and sycees remained in use until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Common weights were 50 taels, 10 taels, and 5 down to 1 tael. When foreign silver coins began to circulate in China in the later 16th century, they were initially considered a type of "quasi-sycee" and imprinted with seals just as sycees were.〔(Foreign Silver Coins and Chinese Sycee ) at Sycee-on-line.com〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「sycee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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