Tai Ping Silver Tael or Amulet - China

This is a hand-engraved Tai Ping silver amulet, or charm, made sometime after 1864. Obverse characters are 'Tian Guo' [ 天国 - vertical] while the two reverse characters are 'Sheng Bao' [聖宝 - horizontal w/ abbreviated 'Bao']. These scarce amulets, with a manufacturing technique similar to the official 1/2 & 1/4 Tael pieces of the TaiPings, may have been made by the same Tai Ping engravers that had been employed by the Tai Ping. Bruce Smith speculated that these men went to Fukien after the rebellion and continued their skills there making amulets (Daniel K.E. Ching sale, 1991 Lot # 575). Check out my similar piece at: [ link ]
I've finally found two references with this EXACT type piece shown in a B/W photos. The photo for both references appears to be the same. The first reference is the bible for Tai'Ping coins both real, presentation and fake. This coin appears in Ma & Ma's "Encyclopedia of Qing Dynasty Tai'Ping Rebellion Coins" [ by Ma Dingxiang, 1994; Shanghai People's Publication House; page 105, Ref # T225]. Here the weight is given as 5.64 g and .95 mm thick, the diameter is ~28 mm.
For those fortunate enough to have the book by Dong Wenchao entitled "An Overview of China's Gold & Silver Coins of Past Ages - the Gold and Silver Coins and Medals of Modern China" [pub. by China Finance Publishing House and Economic Information & Agency]: this coin type appears in the section on Silver Coins Minted by ...The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. On page 805, Plate # 1404 this exact style of hand engraved piece is shown, characters & arrangement, field stippling, edge, and hole shape are the same. The plate photo is ~28 mm and the rarity is given as 4 stars, or extremely rare, unfortunately the weight or other details is not stated in Wenchao. This piece is also ~28 mm and weighs 5.46 g., the thickness is a scrape under 1 mm. See it below...

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A mention of hand engraved coins by the Small Sword Society [PL21-4] is made by Helen Wang in her excellent work entitled "Chinese Secret Society Coins" - you can VIEW and DOWNLOAD at this: [ link ]
In Dong Wenchao's excellent book: "An Overview of China's Gold & Silver Coins of Past Ages - the Gold and Silver Coins and Medals of Modern China" there's a short history with four known, rare, hand-engraved silver coins, including this one. See it at this: [ link ]