Sino-Tibetan coinage

After Tibet started minting it's own Tamkas in 1791, under Chinese authority bilingual so called sino-tibetan coins were issued. They had on one side Chinese and on the other side Tibetan language.

The denomination of the coins were according to Tibetan Nepali standard along the fractions of the cut Tamka: 5 Kar (3 petals of the cut Tamka), 7,5 Kar (4 petals of the cut Tamka or half Tamka), 1 Sho (5 petals of the cut Tamka, also equalling 1 qian 錢/ 钱, the most common Chinese coin denomination) and 1 Tamka (1,5 Sho). The 1 Sho coin is the dominant one, all other denominations beeing extremely rare. In weight and size as well material (silver) the coins therefore were adapted to Tibetan use and completely non-chinese. In design the central hole of cash coins was hinted at with the inscription of the coins be read as top, bottom, right and left (e.g. qian long bao zang) as with Chinese coins and the denomination of 1 Sho/ 1 qian 钱 being familiar to Chinese and Tibetans. But again non-chinese: the coins were dated.

According to my belief the sino Tibetan issues were minted under the authority of the Chinese IN Tibet (carrying the coins there from China would have been be too difficult and costly) primarily for payment of the salaries of Chinese soldiers in Tibet. China under Qianlong had soldiers stationed in Tibet. They originally were paid with silver ingots. The exchange rate of the silver ingots into Tibetan money or goods was very bad. Therefore the Chinese decided to mint coins similar to the Tibetan ones. The Chinese did not mint Chinese cash coins made of bronze, because Tibet was not a part of China, at least economically, and people did not accept Chinese cash coins made of bronze. To make the Tibetans accept the Chinese coins they had to be in a material (silver), in a design, in denominations (the fractions of the Tamka) which Tibetans were accustomed to. And so the Chinese did. They minted completely unchinese coins made of silver so that Tibetans would accept them. It seems they could not bring their bronze coins and force Tibetans to accept them, which one would suspect if Tibet would have been a part of China. The second reason to mint coins was to repell Nepali coins for use in Tibet and reject Nepali influence in general.

The Tibetan coinage system was Nepali influenced from the very beginning. The minting of sino Tibetan coins is an attempt to displace Nepali influence (similar as it was later done with the Indian/ Sichuan Rupee).

Sino Tibetan coins are very rare, much rarer than the parallely circulating Tibetan Tamkas. They were only minted in a few years: Qianlong years 58 (1792), 59, 60, 61, Jiaqing 1 (1796), 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 24, 25 (1820) and Daoguan 1 (1821), 2, 3, 4, 15, 16 (1836). Of these years Qianlong 61, Jiaqing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Daoguan 15, 16 are extremely rare and Jiaqing 8, 9, 24 and Daoguan 1 and 4 quite rare, so that we have to assume that in those years not many coins were issued.

This leaves only some 6 years in a period of over 100 years from 1792 to the beginning of the 20th century, with an important Chinese coin output: Qianlong years 58, 59, 60 (1792-1794), Jiaqing 25 (1820) and Daoguan 2, 3 (1822-1823). This may hint to the fact that the Chinese coins for Tibet were actually quite marginal for the economy and in everyday use.

After 1822 the next Sino Tibetan issues were in 1909-1910

when the Qing sent a military expedition to establish direct Chinese rule over Tibet in 1910. Immediately in the same year as the last Chinese emperor resigend Tibet changed it's coin design with no more reference to China at all.

There were 2 editions of coins with completely different designs marking the split from sino-tibetan to completely Tibetan coins in 1909. There are 1/8 Sho, 1/4 Sho, 5 Sho (extremely rare) and 1 Sang coins (KM Y#A7, B7, 8 and 9 respectively) in Tibetan script but referring to the throne year 1 of the Chinese emperor Xuantong (that can be 1908 or 1909). In the same year, the Tibetan year 15-43 (1909) the first coins with a lion were minted in a completely Tibetan style with no more reference to China whatsoever, e.g. 2,5 Kar, 5 Kar, 7,5 Kar, 1 Sang (KM Y#10, A10, 11 and 12 respectively).
Additionally, probably in 1910 coins in a typical Chinese dragon design were minted in the name of Xuantong, with the inscription in Chinese and Tibetan. They have no date indication whatsoever, so it is hard to determine the exact year for those coins.

To align these three different coin issues with historical incidences I would suggest:

1. After fleeing the British and finding refuge in Mongolia and China where he got introduced to modern coinage systems, the 13th Dalai Lama ordered to issue coins with Tibetan script but referring to the throne year 1 of the Chinese emperor Xuantong. Throne year 1 of Xuantong is 1908, (but can reach into 1909 because of the Tibetan calendars newyear being usually around February, March.)

In 1908-9 the Chinese Amban Zhou Erfeng attempted to march against Lhasa to bring Tibet under direct control of the Chinese government. Maybe here, as a protest against China, the new coins were issued banning all reference to China from Tibetan coins. Later in 1910 when the Chinese troops reached Lhasa and the 13th Dalai Lama fled to India there may have been issued the Dragon design sino Tibetan coins under the guidance of the Amban.
During the time of the Chinese revolution and absence of the Dalai Lama in India no coins were issued, with the first coins issued afterwards being in 15-47 (1913).

This would suggest, that the Chinese revolution and the consequent declarance of independance of Tibet had NO influence on Tibetan coin minting and coin design, but that the purely Tibetan cons were introduced earlier as a response to the Chinese aggression under Zhou Erfeng. After the interim period of Dragon sino Tibetan coins when the Chinese actually took control over Lhasa, the Tibetans just continued to issue their purely Tibetan design coins in 15-47 (1913) with the 2,5 Kar, 5 Kar and 5 Sho silver coins and 1 Sang silver in 15-48 (1914).

 

Another option is, that the purely Tibetan design coins with no reference to China were minted after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 and Tibets defacto independance. In this case the Tibetan date of the coins must have been predated to 15-43.

All three editions of coins mentioned here are very rare - which fits the short span of time they were minted.

3 pictures:

Issue one 1909: Tibetan script but reference to the Chinese emperor in the date

Issue two 1909-1910: purely Tibetan issue with lion and no reference to China whatsoever

Issue three 1910: sino-tibetan issue with dragon design, with examples from other Qing Dynasty coins of the time.

The Chinese sino-tibetan coins due to their good silver content may have been molten down to bullion more than the Tibetan Tamkas, so distorting the number of coins at circulation which I can only judge from todays availablity. This may devalue my argument of Chinese coins being marginal in Tibetan economy.