A Taiwan Gold Tael Dated 1950
Weight: 37.4 g
Date: 1950
Inscriptions:
登錄商標(Registered Trademark)
寅 (Yin, a Chinese character, part of the trademark design, also an abbreviation of the celestial year 辛寅, i.e., 1950)
金瑞山(Jin Zuei Shan, name of the gold shop)
足赤(足 means "Sufficient", 赤 means "Red". The Chinese people in the past believed that only gold of the best quality will turn reddish, therefore, 足赤 has been used to stand for then best applicable gold fineness for hundreds of years, even until now)
999 (Fineness: 999/1000), 1000 (Tael: 1000/1000)
This gold ingot was cast in 1950 by 金瑞山(Jin Zuei
Shan).
金瑞山 was the largest gold
shop in Taiwan during 1950s. The KMT government, after retreating to Taiwan from
the mainland China in 1949, legitimatized Taiwan's gold business in 1950 by
enacting a rule of registration, but, this policy did not last long. In order to
curb inflation and gold outflow, transactions involving gold billion were banned in the
following year. Therefore, this gold ingot is the 1st year issue of
金瑞山, as well
as the only year. In 1956, that gold shop was forced to close after being accused
of violating the ban by doing gold bullion transactions under the martial law. The person-in-charge was sent into
prison, and all the inventoried gold was forfeited. 30 years later, finally,
this ban was lifted in 1986.
This gold ingot used the Taiwan scale― 1 Taiwan Tael = 37.5 g. The Taiwan
scale is
unlike the Market Tael commonly used in China―1 Market Tael=31.25 g . This
scale system was inherited from Japan during the Japanese occupation, i.e.,
1895-1945. In Japan, 10 錢 (Sen) = 37.5g, and such 10 錢 is of the same meaning of
1 Taiwan Tael.
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