Item number: A1707

Year: AD 1948

Material: Silver-plated billon

Size: 32.4 x 32.4 x 2.3 mm

Weight: 16.6 g

Manufactured by: Tashi Electric Machinery Plant, Lhasa

Provenance: Da Chen Stamps and Coins Collection 2014

This is a “Jiu-guo” silver-plated coin minted by the de facto independent Tibetan government, with a face value of 10 srang, by the de facto independent Tibetan government in the 22nd year of the 16th Rabjung cycle of the Tibetan calendar (AD 1948). Chinese collectors have transliterated the Tibetan term for ten srang as “Jiu-guo,” derived from the original Tibetan “དགུ་བཀའ་” (Wylie: gu-ga), which means “nine units.” This nomenclature originates from Tibet’s nonary (base-9) numerical system, which was later adapted into the decimal system, with the term becoming a conventional designation for a base-ten unit. The silver-plated Jiu-guo coins were minted from AD 1948 to 1952, featuring two principal obverse designs: the “Double Sun” and the “Sun and Moon” patterns. This particular coin belongs to the “Double Sun” type, produced between AD 1948 and 1949. One Tibetan tael (srang) is equal to ten sho.

The obverse and reverse are both encircled by a border of star points, serving as decorative rims. At the centre of the obverse is a depiction of a triple-peaked snowy mountain with a snow lion (Wylie: Seng-ge-dkar-mo) playing with a “gankyil” (Wylie: dGav-vkhyil), extending its limbs and turning its head rightward to subdue evil in all directions. The snow lion, originally a malevolent spirit in Tibetan mythology that spread plagues, later became a symbol of power and protection in Tibet. The gankyil, interpreted as a circular motif of three intertwined parts, symbolises the “Three Jewels” (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha) or the “Three Wisdoms” (fundamental, path, and fruition wisdom). These elements also appear on the modern Tibetan Snow Lion Flag. Below the snow lion are abstract ocean wave patterns, reflecting the inheritance of Indian mythology from the Vishnu Purana, where gods churned the ocean, producing numerous treasures. Encircling the design are eight-petalled lotus patterns inscribed with the Tibetan phrase “དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང་ ཕྱོ་ ལས་རྣམ་ རྣམ་རྒྱལ།” (Wylie: dga’ ldan pho brang phyo(gs) las rnam rgyal), meaning “Total Victory of Ganden Palace.” The Ganden Palace, situated at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, was the residence of successive Dalai Lamas before they assumed full political authority and symbolises the Dalai Lama’s sovereignty.

The reverse displays a vertical arrangement comprising, from top to bottom, a superimposed sun and moon, a victory banner (Wylie: rgyal-mtshan), three chimeric victory beasts, and a treasure vase flanked by two jewel-spewing marmots. In Tibetan Buddhist symbolism, the sun and moon represent absolute and relative truth, or the ultimate and conventional realities. The victory banner, originally an Indian military standard, became a Buddhist symbol of triumph over all evil forces. Traditionally depicted as a cylindrical, tiered canopy adorned with jewels and silken ribbons, it is here stylised in a cloud-like form. The three victory beasts (Wylie: Mi-thun-g.yul-rgyal-gsum) are mythological creatures formed from pairs of their enemies: a Garuda-lion hybrid (Wylie: Seng-ge-rkang-pa-brgyad-pa), a fish-otter hybrid (Wylie: Nya-spu-rgyas-pa), and a makara-conch hybrid (Wylie: Chu-sring), symbolising the power of unity to overcome adversity. The jewel-spewing marmots, traditionally associated with Vaishravana and Mahakala, personify the sharing of wealth and wisdom. Their imagery originated from a Central Asian custom of using weasel pelts as coin purses, which later spread to India. On either side of the composition, two Tibetan inscriptions read “སོ ༢༢” (Wylie: so 22) and “སྲང ༡༠” (Wylie: srang 10), indicating “22nd year” and “10 srang” (equivalent to ten taels) respectively, denoting the year of issuance and the coin’s denomination. The surrounding eight-petalled lotus pattern bears the inscription “ཆོས་སྲིད་ གཉིས་ལྡན་ རབ་བྱུང་ བཅུ་དྲུག་” (Wylie: chos srid gnyis ldan rab byung bcu drug), meaning “Unity of Dharma and Temporal Power, Sixteenth Rabjung.” The Rabjung cycle (རབ་བྱུང༌།) is a sixty-year cycle originating from the Indian tradition, commencing in AD 1027; the sixteenth cycle’s 22nd year corresponds to AD 1948.

The modern Tibetan mint, known as Tashi Electric Machinery Plant (Tibetan: “བཀྲ་ཤིས་གློག་འཕྲུལ་ལས་ཁུངས་”, Wylie: bkra shis glog ‘phrul las khungs), was named “Infinite Rare Illusory Treasure” by the 13th Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso in AD 1931. The Tashi Electric Machinery Plant consolidated the equipment from three minting sites: Norstod (Tibetan phonetic: nor stod), Dogde (Tibetan phonetic: dog bde), and Meji (Tibetan phonetic: me skyd), enabling electric-powered coin minting. In AD 1950, following the Battle of Chamdo, the Tibetan army was defeated. By AD 1959, the renminbi became the sole legal currency in Tibet, and the circulation of old Tibetan currency was prohibited.

The issuance of the Jiu-guo 10-srang silver coin began in AD 1948 under the regency of Taktra Rinpoche. According to records from the “Tashi Agency Archives,” the coin was initially composed of ten taels of silver, alloyed with eighteen taels of red copper and two taels of brass. It was later suspected that the coins were switched to silver-plated or silver-clad versions, with the actual silver content potentially falling below 33%, and some reports indicating as low as 14%. The transition to silver-plated coins was likely a measure taken by Taktra Rinpoche to raise military funds, driven by his deteriorating relations with both the Nationalist Government and the People’s Government, which compelled him to seek financial self-preservation through increased coin production.

物件編號: A1707

年代: 公元 1948 年

材質: 銅芯鍍銀

尺寸: 32.4 x 32.4 x 2.3 mm

重量: 16.6 g

製造地: 扎西電機廠，拉薩

來源: 大城郵幣社 2014

這是一枚於藏曆第16繞迥的22年(公元1948年)，實質獨立的西藏政府鑄造的久果鍍銀幣，面額為10藏兩。華文世界收藏家直譯十兩的藏語音譯為「久果」，原文「དགུ་བཀའ་」(威利轉寫: gu-ga)為九個單位之意，來源於西藏的九進制傳統，在轉化為十進制後，該辭出於習慣而成為十進位基數的稱呼。久果鍍銀幣的鑄造時間為公元1948至1952年，按照正面的圖騰主要分為「雙日」和「日月」兩種版型。這枚錢幣屬於公元1948至1949年鑄造的「雙日版」。1藏兩等於10雪阿。

錢幣的正反兩面皆以一道星點為圈，與邊輪作為裝飾。正面的圓圈中央為三峰雪山，雪山中有一隻把玩喜旋(威利轉寫: dGav-vkhyil)的雪獅(威利轉寫: Sen-ge-dkar-mo)，姿態欠伸而朝右回首，鎮怖四方。雪獅原為西藏神話傳說中的一種厲妖，即傳播疾疫的兇神，後成為西藏權力與護佑的象徵。喜旋可理解為三魚盤繞而成的三太極圖，象徵「三寶」(佛、法、僧)或「三智」(基智、道智、果智)。這些元素在當代西藏象徵的雪山獅子旗中，也皆有出現。雪獅的下方有著抽象的海潮紋路，反映了藏傳佛教承繼了印度《毗濕奴往世書》的神話，傳說眾神在攪動海潮的過程中生成了諸多珍寶。周圍的八瓣蓮花分別刻印藏文「དགའ་ལྡན་ཕོ་བྲང་ ཕྱོ་ ལས་རྣམ་ རྣམ་རྒྱལ།」(威利轉寫: dga’ ldan pho brang phyo(gs) las rnam rgyal)，意思是「噶單頗章諸方全勝」。「噶單頗章」是歷代達賴親政前於拉薩哲蚌寺的居所，亦是代表達賴擁有的權力。

錢幣的背面中央，由上而下分別為上下相疊的日月、尊勝幢、三勝獸、底部為聚寶盆，聚寶盆兩側有吐寶鼠鼬吐入珠寶。於藏傳佛教中，日月分別象徵著絕對真理與相對真理，勝義諦與世俗諦。尊勝幢(威利轉寫: rgyal-mtshan)，或譯勝利幢，原為古印度戰旗，佛教中引申為戰勝一切邪法的象徵。一般而言，尊勝幢的形象為圓柱形的層疊帷帳，飾以珠寶與絲帶，這裡被描繪成雲狀的形式。三勝獸(威利轉寫: Mi-thun-g·yul-rgyal-gsum)中的三隻神話生物，都是傳統互為天敵的物種嵌合而成，分別為金翅鳥-獅子(威利轉寫: Seng-ge-rkang-pa-brgyad-pa)，魚-水獺(威利轉寫: Nya-spu-rgyas-pa)，魔羯-海螺(威利轉寫: Chu-sring)，象徵了若團結一致，可以戰勝一切。吐寶鼠鼬在神話中通常為大黑天或多聞天王等財神所持，吐出珠寶或如意寶，象徵分享財富與智慧。來源於中亞以鼬皮製作錢包的傳統，後傳入印度。為圖樣分成兩側的兩行藏文「སོ ༢༢」、「སྲང ༡༠」，分別為「22年」與「10雪阿」之意，標示了發行年與面額。周圍的八瓣蓮花分別刻印藏文「ཆོས་སྲིད་ གཉིས་ལྡན་ རབ་བྱུང་ བཅུ་དྲུག་」(威利轉寫: chos srid gnyis ldan rab byung bcu drug)，即「政教合一，十六繞迥」，繞迥(རབ་བྱུང༌།)源於印度，以六十年為一周期，自公元1027年起算，十六繞迥的第22年，即為公元1948年。

西藏近代鑄幣廠即扎西電機廠，藏文「བཀྲ་ཤིས་གློག་འཕྲུལ་ལས་ཁུངས་」(威利轉寫: bkra shis glog ‘phrul las khungs )，十三世達賴喇嘛丹嘉措，於公元1931年提名「無邊稀有幻化寶藏」。扎西電機廠集合諾兌(藏語拼音: nor stod)、奪底(藏語拼音: dog bde)、梅吉(藏語拼音: me skyd)，三個鑄幣場所的機具，以電力鑄造機制幣。公元1950年，昌都戰役中，藏軍被擊潰。公元1959年，藏區開始通行人民幣，舊藏幣禁止流通。

公元1948年，始鑄「久果」10兩鍍銀幣，由時任攝政達扎活佛發行，據轉引《扎西機關檔案》，該幣原料以白銀十兩，摻紅銅十八兩和黃銅二兩。後可能改以鍍銀或包銀，具體含銀量可能未達33%，有數據稱降至14%。鍍銀幣的發行，可能是因為西藏攝政達扎活佛先後與國民政府、人民政府關係交惡，為求自保以籌措軍費所致。