Silver ingot
Silver ingot, with six stamped impressions. This was a tax ingot produced during the Song dynasty in Lin’an, in modern day Hangzhou province, China. The inscription reads: “Ingot-silver melted at the capital” [京銷鋌銀 transliteration: Jing xiao ting yin].
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Cargo on the Intan wreck
story by Lars Scholten.In 1997 excavation began on a shipwreck lying at the bottom of the Java Sea, near the Indonesian Intan oil field. The shipwreck, dated to the 10th century, contained an astonishing variety of over 13.000 objects including almost a hundred silver ingots. This ingot, held by the British Museum, is a well-preserved example of the type of ‘tax ingots’ found on board the ship. What can these ingots tell us about the development of currency in Chinese dynastic history?