Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael (simplified Chinese: 两; traditional Chinese: 兩; pinyin: liǎng), a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency . There were many different weighting standards of tael depending on the region or type of trade. In general the silver tael weighed around 40 grams. The most common government measure was the Kùpíng (庫平 "treasury stan...
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Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael (simplified Chinese: 两; traditional Chinese: 兩; pinyin: liǎng), a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency . There were many different weighting standards of tael depending on the region or type of trade. In general the silver tael weighed around 40 grams. The most common government measure was the Kùpíng (庫平 "treasury standard") tael, weighing 1.2 Troy ounces (37.3 g). A common commercial weight, the Cáopíng (漕平 "canal shipping standard") tael weighed 1.18 Troy ounces (36.7 g) of marginally less pure silver.
The English word tael comes from the Malay word tahil, meaning "weight" and tahil is used in Malay and English today when referring to the weight in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei where it is still used in some contexts especially related to the significant Overseas Chinese population.
In Chinese, the tael is written 兩 or 両 (simplified Chinese: 两) and...
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