Information about mint: Hong Kong Mint

The Hong Kong mint was established on 7 May 1866 to strike silver coins from dies supplied from the Royal Mint, London. It was soon realised though that this was not proving profitable and attempts were made to interest the Chinese government to approve the use of the silver coins within China.

Silver pattern Tael coins were designed with the accepted Chinese weight standard and the dies cut for them at the Hong Kong mint. Samples were sent to Peking (Beijing) but even the inclusion of the Chinese dragon failed to win over officials. Failure of this attempt to interest the Chinese led to the closure of the Hong Kong mint in 1868.

It was sold to the Government of Japan and the equipment was moved to Osaka.