This
week’s highlight from our August 14-16 Hong Kong Auction at the Mira Hotel in
Hong Kong is a fabulous Chihli (Pei Yang) Dollar dated Year 33 (1907) of the
reign of Kuang Hsu. It features the familiar standardized dragon design within
clouds, English legend around. The
reverse displays the Emperor’s name in Chinese and Manchu within a beaded
border, province name and denomination around divided by pellet stops. It was produced
at the Central Mint at Tientsin (Tianjin) in Chihli province in northeastern
China, a region that contains the Eastern end of the Great Wall. The name
Chihli (Zhili) means “directly ruled” indicating that the region was directly
ruled by the imperial government of China. The strike on the present example displays
sharp details of the dragon’s scales with lovely satiny surfaces and just a
touch of tone in the peripheries.
One
of the more interesting aspects of this coin is that the year is written as “33th”
rather than “33rd” as on the Taels of the same year. Clearly when preparing the
dies the engraver was referring to a previous issue with identical design
features, but with a date of 25th, 26th or 29th year. According to Edward Kann, who had more than a
dozen such pieces in his massive collection: “There are a great many more
varieties extant, principally by different styles of the figures 33.” He was unaware of any piece where the date
was written correctly and states, “No such dollar coins with the correct
inscription are in existence.” At any
rate this is a lovely example sure to appeal to even the most advanced
collector of Chinese provincial coinage.
We
are no longer accepting consignments for our August Hong Kong auction. We are
however currently taking consignments of world and ancient coins and world
paper money for our October Collectors Choice Online Auction (CCO), our January
2018 New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC) Auction, and our
April 2018 Hong Kong Showcase Auction. If you are interested in consigning your
coins and paper currency (whether a whole collection or a single rarity) be
sure to contact one of our consignment directors.
