REALLY cool Indochina/Vietnam era silver bar? coin? anvil???? Please help me...

I have this really cool 6.59 oz silver bar that is shaped like an anvil. I think it is an Indochina piece. Can anyone help me identify and/or translate it? Any help would be much appreciated. I will follow this up with a picture of the bottom. Thanks.

 

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I have seen but am wary of those anvil bars as there are lots of modern replicas, the latter piece is a Thai Baht in silver - ie a bullet money coin.

 

Thanks for the reply. The anvil bar (is that the right common name for them?) is legit. It came from a very wealthy US dignitary who traveled with the Pres. Richard Nixon administration. I strongly believe it to be authentic.

 

It's a "saddle" sycee from China's Yunnan Province.

Please go to this web page and scroll down to "No. O-D-3". Click on the image for a larger view.

This is your sycee. There is a difference in the "chopmark". The chopmark on this website's sycee is "fu hsin" (福興). The chopmark (character in oval) on your sycee is "ku" (庫).

A different sycee but with the same "ku" chopmark as yours may be seen here.

A sycee that is similar to the one on the sycee-on-line website and was in a Beijing auction in 2011 may be seen here.

The weight of your sycee appears to be correct.

I have no experience with sycees so am unable to authenticate your piece.

Gary

 

Yes. They are called pod duang. They were issued from the Ayuttaya period through Rama V. Most Rama V issues though were ceremonial in nature, and he is the King who demonetized these and converted Thailand to western style coinage. Yours appears to be a Prasat symbol indicating Rama III. If it weighs around 15 grams its a baht, anything less a half, quarter, eighth, etc baht.

 

Can you tell me how much the Beijing auctioned sycee sold for? It looks like it is probably in the $900-$1200 range. Does that sound about right? I've seen some sycees 'listed' for SEVERAL thousand dollars. I wonder what makes them more collectible? Just rarity?

Thank you very much Gary.

 

The "appraised value" was RMB 10,000 - 12,000 (US$ 1,600 -1,900) but the sycee went unsold.

Gary