As Hong Kong is an international financial centre, it is a matter of interest that people should learn more about its currency. Until June 4, the Hong Kong Museum of History presents 'Hong Kong Currency', the largest exhibition of its kind in the city.
Some 700 artefacts are on show, giving visitors a better understanding of Hong Kong's monetary history through coins and banknotes, pictures and videos. People can also learn how the purchasing power of the local currency has changed over the years in relation to their everyday lives.
Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the exhibition is organised by the Hong Kong Museum of History, with Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Bank of China (Hong Kong) as supporting organisations.
After Hong Kong opened to foreign trade in 1841, the city used silver sycees [a type of ingot] and Chinese coins as its main currency. Hong Kong only got its own paper money in 1846 when the city's first bank, The Oriental Bank (later known as The Oriental Bank Corporation), began issuing Hong Kong dollar banknotes.
Later, the Hong Kong government began ordering coins in denominations of 10 cents and below from Britain in 1863. Three years later, the Hong Kong Mint was founded to produce silver coins in denominations of 5 cents to HK$1 locally. The Mint was closed in 1868, making the silver coins for those two years the only ones produced locally.
When the British trade dollar (a legal tender of Hong Kong since 1895) was abolished in 1937, Hong Kong's coinage was standardised and issued exclusively by the Hong Kong government. Although Hong Kong had as many as six note-issuing banks in 1866, only three remained before the second world war: the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and the Mercantile Bank of India.