1 Dollar - Victoria Trial Strike

Hong Kong's colonial administration spent much of the mid-1860s wrestling with the question of a local dollar to compete with the Spanish and Mexican pesos then dominating trade circulation in the colony. The Royal Mint produced multiple pattern and trial strikes across 1865–66 as part of this evaluation, none of which led immediately to an adopted coinage — the project stalled, and Hong Kong would not see a circulating silver dollar until 1866, itself a short-lived issue discontinued the following year under pressure from merchants who simply preferred the familiar Mexican piece.

The several KM pattern numbers reflect distinct die combinations tested during this period. Surviving examples are overwhelmingly in institutional collections.