Also 8 sisee, seze. [Chinese sí (pronounced in Canton sai, sei) sz’ fine silk: ‘so called because, if pure, it may be drawn out into fine threads’ (Giles in Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson).] Fine uncoined silver in the form of lumps of various sizes, usually having a banker’s or assayer’s seal stamped on them, used by the Chinese as a medium of exchange. Also sycee silver.
1711. Lockyer, Acc. Trade India, v. 135. Formerly they used to sell for Sisee, or Silver full fine;… 10 Tale of Gold 93 fine, sold for 94 Tale weight of Sisee Silver is 7 above Touch.
1834. Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, App. 29. Sycee silver … is the only approach to a silver currency among the Chinese.
1865. Rennie, Peking & Pekingese, II. 116. This purchase money consisting of sixty-two shoe-shaped ingots of Sycee silver.
1882. ‘Fan Kwae’ at Canton, 38. Shroffs were also ‘changers’—providing when required either Sycee, chopped dollars, or gold—as well as bankers.
attrib. 1875. Jevons, Money, xii. 148. Either rupees as in India, sycee bars as in China, or silver dollars.
