The C. V. Starr East Asian Library is one of the major collections for the study of East Asia in the United States, with materials in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Mongol, Manchu, and western-languages, including books (both print and electronic), periodicals, newspapers, audio-visual material, databases, and more.
The Coins and Paper Currency of Tibet collection of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University comprises a small representative sample of historical coinage and paper currency circulating in Tibet and contiguous areas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The core items in this collection originally belonged to the Kyaping family, who lived in the heart of Lhasa until the final occupation by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 1959. It is noteworthy that the family's holdings included coins minted in Sichuan as well as Nepal, as well as paper currency printed in Tibet. The bulk of the collection was probably issued from approximately 1870 through 1940.