Yuan Silver Ingot Currency

Timeline

1. c. 1260–1264Kaiping and Yanjing fiscal zone · southern edge of the Mongolian PlateauAround his accession, Kublai Khan reformed the currency system; silver ingots, alongside paper notes, rose in importance as a store of value and means of settlement in official silver casting and commercial tax collection.
2. c. 1261–1270Dadu · ChinaAs the Yuan administrative center shifted east, stamped silver ingots became the core medium of large transactions in Dadu markets and along the Grand Canal grain transport route; silver shops across regions smelted them to standard and applied official verification marks.
3. 1271–1368Jiangnan and commercial cities along the canal · JiangnanIn the mid-to-late Yuan, silver ingot forms grew more diverse; specifications such as fifty-liang and twenty-five-liang were widely used in taxation and overseas trade, laying material and institutional foundations for silver becoming the primary currency in the Ming.