Double dragons on a Hupeh 1904 silver “One Tael” coin with large characters on reverse
A reader from France recently sent me pictures of this Chinese silver coin with beautiful double dragons on the obverse. I was astonished: usually, this kind of coins is only seen in large auctions and I never had someone contacting me about a genuine one. Not only this coin was obviously genuine, but it was the better, very rare Large Characters variety:
China Hupeh 1904 silver one Tael Large Characters reverse details L&M-181 K-933b KM-Y-128.1
As you can see, on the Large Characters variety the manchu script at the center of the coin is connected to the surrounding Chinese characters in two different places. On the more common Small Characters variety, the characters don’t connect.
The 1904 Hupeh tael, whichever variety, is always a rare coin. It only circulated for one month before being scrapped, and only 648,000 were minted in the first place. It is impossible to know how many survived, but there is only 224 coins graded by PCGS to this day, of which only 25 with the “Large Characters” variety. On June 25, Heritage Auctions sold a perfect one for $360,000 USD in Hong Kong.
The strangest thing about my reader’s coin is the circulation wear:
China Hupeh 1904 silver one tael coin obverse detail L&M-181 K-933b KM-Y-128.1
China Hupeh 1904 silver one tael coin large characters reverse detail L&M-181 K-933b KM-Y-128.1
Most of the surviving 1904 Hupeh Tael are in high grade because they were thesaurized as high denomination coins and left untouched. It seems this one somehow escaped the Hupeh province and circulated elsewhere, likely for its weight in silver ?
PCGS certified this coin VF30: this is the lowest grade for this type, but a privilege to even hold it in one’s hand. Only two dozens are known to exist in the world right now, and it is a very rare pleasure indeed to help add one to the census !
Horse & Dragon Fantasy Tael (Kann B37)
Szechuan-Shensi Soviet dollar with Large Solid Stars (Y513.5) – obverse
Szechuan-Shensi Soviet dollar with Large Solid Stars (Y513.5) – reverse
This month, a reader from Canada contacted me for a free appraisal. He had a beautifully toned, authentic Y513.5 Szechuan-shensi Soviet dollar with large solid stars.
While not as rare as the Soviet dollar with large decorative stars presented in the article below, this is still a very scarce coin.
It was brought to Canada by his grandparents in 1936. They had traveled to China as missionaries and left just as the Sino-Japanese war started. I helped this reader to sell his coin to a Chinese coins collector, and almost a century later, this beautiful Chinese coin has found its way back home to the Szechuan province.
I wish 国庆节快乐 to our Chinese readers!