2019 St. Helena East India Co. Chinese Trade Dollar 1 oz premium BU silver coin

On offer:  a 2019 St. Helena 1 oz fine (0.999) silver coin with a reverse dragon design patterned
after Chinese trade dollars struck in 1889.  These coins have been minted by the Royal Mint of the UK in consultation with the Currency Commissioners of the Island of St. Helena.  Just 5,000 of these premium uncirculated coins have been struck.

Trade dollars were once issued by various nations in North America and Europe during the 19^th century for the purposes of international trade in a common denomination. Many trade dollars were developed based on the Spanish 8 Reales coin which, at the time, was the dominant form of global currency. Following the Opium Wars between China and Great Britain, Chinese ports were opened to Western trade and a need arose for a common trading currency in the colonial ports of China.  In an effort to modernize the Chinese economy, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the reorganization of Chinese weights and measures in 1889 and the creation of a new unit of currency to ease trade relations. 

The East India Company (known from 1600–1708 as ‘Governor and Company of
Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies,’ and from 1708–1873 as the ‘United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies’), is an
English company formed for the pursuit of trade in Asia.  Incorporated by royal charter
from Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, the company was granted exclusive (as in, monopolistic)
trading rights to the “East” – including India, China, Southeast Asia and
Japan.  Starting in the early 1700’s and
lasting until the mid-1800’s, the company was highly influential in British
politics and contributed significantly to the expansion of the British Empire in Asia.