One of the more interesting coins I've acquired is a silver rupee struck in Szechuan, China for the Sino-Tibetan trade in the very early days of the twentieth century.

According to the late Eduard Kann in his "Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins" he mentions the fact that the British East India Company rupee dated 1840 enjoyed wide circulation in Yunnan Province and the Chinese-Tibetan border. The wonderful head of a young Queen Victoria adorns the obverse.

The Chinese authorities decided the time had arrived for them to mint their own rupees around 1903 and this actually lasted until 1930. The early pieces were struck in very fine silver while the later war lord issues became cruder in design and debased silver. Using a British India rupee of 1862 -82  depicting a crowned Victoria bust as a model they copied her in great detail but replaced the crown with a simple Mandarin hat. The image actually was intended to depict the Chinese Emperor Kuang-hsü. The reverse floral sprays were also copied but the denomination was replaced with four Chinese characters "Szu-ch'uan Shan-tsoh" which means "made in Szechuan" more or less. These rupees and the fractions thereof are listed under "Tibet - Trade Coinage" in the  "Standard Catalog of World Coins" while the fantasy crown or dollar sizes in gold and silver are found listed under "China" in "Unusual World Coins" as X # M440 - X; M445.

Both series were struck in silver and gold but what really surprised me was the specific gravity test results we got here in the office for this example. Unknown to us at this time this piece is struck in silver on the French Indochina coinage standard of 0.8350 fineness.