Hong Kong one-mil coin

One mil
Hong Kong
Value	0.001 HKD
Mass	0.98 g
Diameter	15 mm
Thickness	0.80 mm
Edge	plain
Composition	Bronze
Years of minting	1863 –1866
Catalog number	-
Obverse
Design	Hong Kong one mil
Designer	William Robinson
Design date	1861
Reverse
Design	Chinese characters for Hong Kong and denomination
Designer	William Robinson
Design date	1861

The one mil coin was the smallest denomination of the Hong Kong dollar from 1863 to 1866, after this date it was no longer issued but may have circulated much longer. Its value was one tenth of a cent, or a thousandth of a dollar. It was minted by the Royal Mint, it features the Royal cypher of "VR", of the reigning monarch Queen Victoria at the time, but didn't feature a profile of the face of the monarch as all other coins did, due to the hole in the middle.

Design

Hong Kong one-mil coin (1866) with Chinese characters “香港一千”

The obverse had denomination and country name in the English language. It featured the British crown and the initials 'VR' for Victoria Regina (Latin for Queen Victoria). While coins of the pound sterling have the royal title written in Latin, this is the only use of Latin on British Hong Kong coins. Royal titles were written in English on its other coins.

The reverse had the denomination and country name written in Chinese. During the period 1863-1866, the characters on this side was written as Hong Kong One-wen (香港一文), resembling the Chinese currency of cash at that time period. Among which, the 1866 One-wen is regarded as one of the rarest sample in Hong Kong coinage. Later on in 1866, the Chinese characters was altered to Hong Kong One-thousand (香港一千), indicating the value of a thousandth of a dollar.

Mintages

Hong Kong One-wen variation

Source:^[1]

1863: 19,000,000

1864: Unknown

1865: 40,000,000 (Two variations exist - one with a hyphen between HONG and KONG on the obverse, one without hyphen between the two words)

1866: Unknown (Regarded as one of the rarest coin in Hong Kong coinage. One of the samples is stored in the collection of the Melbourne Museum.^[2])

Hong Kong One-thousand variation

1866: 20,000,000

References

^ Ma, Tak Wo (2004). Illustrated Catalogue of Hong Kong Currency. Hong Kong: Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co., LTD. ISBN 962-85939-3-5.
^ "Coin - 1 Mil, Hong Kong, 1865". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 2018-05-28.