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Hong Kong Victoria Type II

1891 Proof Fifty Cent reverse 1891 Proof Fifty Cent obverse

1891 Proof Fifty Cent

Mint:Royal London Monarch:Victoria Reverse Designer:William Wyon Obverse Designer:Leonard Wyon Size:32mm Weight:13.52g Edge:Milled Composition:80% Silver
20% Copper

Values

Sales History

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This Hong Kong fifty cent was struck at the Royal Mint in London following the closure of the Hong kong mint. The obverse features the Leonard Wyon effigy of Queen Victoria along with the legend QUEEN VICTORIA interspersed with a scroll pattern border. The reverse has the legend HONG KONG along with Chinese characters depicting the date, denomination and country of origin. Contained within an inner circle is the denomination 50 CENTS. This Type II fifty cent is distinguishable from the Type III by virtue of the absence of a mintmark under the bust of Queen Victoria on the obverse.

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.

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