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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Catbert, post: 492599, member: 12718&quot;]<b>Chop Marks</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;When people brought foreign coins into China, they were looked on more as being ingots than coins. Chinese experts then took these coins and meticulously weighed them and judged the overall value of the metal using their eyesight and experience. Once they had judged a value for the coin they would place a chop mark on them. This was done by the traders themselves, and chopping soon became a daily part of trading and currency life. Coins were chopped for several reasons.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;Each trader had his own chop mark meaning that they could offer a certain guarantee to their customers of the value of the coins. The more trusted a trader or local bank was the more acceptable their chop mark became. The most skilled of assayers would be able to indicate to their customers that they had evaluated the coins, or sycees, that they were handing over and had identified them to be of very high quality. While most chopping was harmless to the coin and, therefore, the silver content it was often necessary for a trader to drill into the coin to be completely sure of it&#039;s credence.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.coinsandcoincollecting.com/chinese-coins.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinsandcoincollecting.com/chinese-coins.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinsandcoincollecting.com/chinese-coins.html</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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