Carolus Dollar (Honyo)
1794 ・ silver ・ 18th century ・ Mexico City Mint
In the treaty ports of China, this was the most trusted of all silver coins. It was the 8 reales bearing the bust of King Charles—the Carolus dollar—which the local people called "Honyo." What was trusted was not the distant authority of the Spanish crown, but the very certainty of uniformity: that any coin one picked up would have the same weight and fineness. The names of the currency units, the Chinese "yuan" (圓) and the Japanese "yen" (円), are said to descend from the lineage of names for these foreign silver coins—"silver yuan" (銀圓). This silver coin ceased to be legal tender in China in 1935, the year of the currency reform that outlawed the use of silver.