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Hong Kong Elizabeth II Type I

1957-H Ten Cent

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The Hong Kong Ten Cent coin issued during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II featured the Queens portrait by Cecil Thomas on the obverse. The legend around the perimeter reads QUEEN ELIZABETH THE SECOND. The reverse shows Chinese symbols of the denomination, date and country. inside a ring of dots. Outside this is the legend HONG KONG TEN CENTS. There were also proof strikes issued between 1955 and 1963.

Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 following the First Opium War upon the Treaty of Nanjing. Prior to the war, China was exporting huge amounts of tea to Britain to meet strong demand. The imbalance of trade between the two countries was marginally met by the export of opium from Britain. Opium was grown legally on British soil and later much larger quantities in India. The Qing dynasty was opposed to the opium trade and a war ensued. 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.