Lot 189 - Great Britain, Overseas Territories. Victoria AR Trade Dollar. 1901B.

Great Britain, Overseas Territories. Victoria AR Trade Dollar. 1901B. ONE DOLLAR, date below Britannia standing with trident & shield, ship at sea in background, all in a patterned border / Chinese characters and Jawi script in ornamental flower, ornate surrounds. KM T5. 26.95g, 39.00mm, 12h. Almost Uncirculated. Nice light toning. Originally known as the "British Dollar", these coins were first produced in 1895 in response to a request from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce (with support from the Straits Settlements) for coins to replace the increasingly scarce Mexican silver peso (known in English as the Mexican "dollar") which formed the basis for the currency in those colonies and other parts of East Asia. The coins were struck, predominantly in India, to a standard slightly below that of the peso (416 grains, .900 fine, as used for the Hong Kong dollars of the 1860s) but were authorized to circulate in Hong Kong, the Straits Settlements and Labuan alongside the Mexican peso. From the outset, it was anticipated that these coins would circulate beyond these colonies, and it soon became known as the "British Trade Dollar".