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Hong Kong Victoria

1863 Proof One Cent

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The Hong Kong one cent was first issued in 1863 and there were three variants. The Type I was noticeable from the fourteen pearls in the left arch of her crown. The Type II had fifteen pearls whilst the Type III being slightly different with five pearls in the centre stalk of the crown. These differences aside, the obverse featured the William Wyon portrait of HM Queen Victoria along with the legend QUEEN VICTORIA. The reverse has the legend HONG KONG ONE CENT with Chinese characters in the centre depicting the date, denomination and country of origin.

The official currency of Hong Kong was the British Pound although it was not well received by the population as the traders were used to the Chinese system of using the weight of silver for their transactions. It was the policy of the British Government to introduce sterling silver coinage to their colonies since 1825 and the Spanish and Mexican eight Reales became legal tender and set at a value of four shillings two pence. The Government eventually concluded that their efforts to introduce the sterling coinage was unsuccessful in overcoming the strong local support of the Spanish silver dollar. The British Government made the decision, as it had also done in Canada, that it could not displace the local currency and the Royal Mint in London commenced the issue of special subsidiary coinage to run alongside the local dollar currency.