Silver Ounce 2021 Modern Chinese Trade Dollar, Coin from Saint Helena - detailed information

Saint Helena is a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean which is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The currency of the island is the Saint Helena pound, fixed at parity with the pound sterling. The island has authorised some private mints to issue coins under its jurisdiction, which come in a variety of sizes - including in the popular silver ounce (1 oz silver) format, usually denominated as £1.

The 2021 1 oz St Helena Modern Chinese Trade Dollar Silver Coin is part of a range dedicated to "trade dollars" and is an artist's impression of what a modern Chinese trade dollar would look like.

The Mint says about this coin:
Shortly after the death of Emperor Xian Feng in 1861, his concubine Cixi assumed control and ruled China as The Empress Dowager. Cixi was able to read, a rare skill at that time, and educated herself on domestic and foreign affairs, creating policies that would modernise China’s culture and economy. Recognising the importance of making international trade as easy as possible she instigated changes in customs, weights and measures that enabled the creation of a standardised "Dragon" Trade Dollar. Trade Dollars had been used to facilitate international trade since the "Spanish Dollars" of the 15th Century, and the first "Dragon" Trade dollars were struck in 1889 with the coin’s weight in English lettering sitting beneath a traditional Chinese dragon. Now, the Chinese Trade Dollar is re-imagined for 2021 by The East India Company.

The first Chinese "Dragon" Trade Dollars were produced in 1889 in a purpose-built Mint in Guangdong Province. The coins were machine-struck using equipment bought from the United Kingdom to a precise specification based on traditional Chinese weight measurements; seven Mace and two Candareens. One Candareen was 1/10th of one Mace; combined, each Dragon Trade Dollar was equivalent to 27.22 grams.

They were struck in .900 silver to make them as close as possible to the Spanish Dollar and similar coins were produced in Japan and South Korea, greatly helping regional trade. All three countries named their coins "Dollars", a word derived from a character which represents the coin’s circular shape. The word is also pronounced similarly in all three languages and is evident in the names of the local currencies today; Yuan, Yen and Won. The last Dragon Trade dollars were struck as the sun set on the Chinese Empire in 1911, shortly before the formation of the Republic of China in 1912.