A few nice Chinese gold coins from our collection

rareCanadian

We posted some of these a long time ago but enjoy sharing it with those that have not seen it. In addition to collecting Multiple Talers, Polish coins, and ancient coins, Alicia is an avid collectior of Chinese. These coins include a rare gold Sycee and some intereting gold fantasy dollars. Gold coins of China are mostly very rare.


Here is a gold Sycee that weighs over 14 ozs, this coins was bought at auction and came from a ship wreck, very few Gold Sycees exist today, they are mostly heavy silver objects.




Here is a beautiful and very rare gold dollar from 1916.




Here is a beautiful and rare gold fantasy dollar from a pair from the late 19th century celebrating a wedding

cosmicdebris

Awesome stuff. That dragon looks great in gold.

theboz11

Just Beautiful

rhound1977

I know nothing of Chinese gold,but those are fantastic particularly the third one, like Cosmic said the dragon looks really neat in gold.....

Steve27

Nice coins, I too really like that dragon.

earlwbollinger

Nice coins thanks for sharing.

trozau

hamiltonjh

great coins. I've started to get in to Japanese coins, but havnt made it to Chinese yet.

thanks for sharing!

MacCrimmon

Simply superb engraving on that pristine 1916 gold dollar. Who was the designer and/or engraver of that piece?

syraq

A gold unlisted pattern of K #677 ?

MSD61

So very beautiful. The eye appeal on those coins are just outstanding Thanks for sharing them with us.

MadMuffin

Fantastic - thanks for sharing!

I love gold coins... mostly looking at them. Usually too expensive for my budget. I did buy one the other day, though - a Nepalese mohar.

Marcel

sumnom

The third one is not for a wedding but a commorative for the crowning of Yuan Shikai as emperorer and is dated 1916. Yuan's short lived "Chinese Empire" was an odd event in modern Chinese history. It is great that you have an artifact from the failed dynasty, if we can even call it that.

If you have a pair, can you post an image of the other piece? I would love to see it.

sumnom

I suppose we might also mention that the second piece commemorates the promulgation of the constitution, which I think was also 1916. Can we call it a dollar if it is not marked with a denomination?

Where did you come across these? They are indeed beautiful.

rareCanadian

The pair of fantasy dollars was purchased from the venerable firm Baldwin Auctions of the UK at an auction in Signapore a few years ago. Your identification is different then both the catalogue and the book by Eduard Kann (Eduard Kann in 1953 however held reservations that fantasy dollars would ever even be collectable!) that lists the coins with photos but if we recall correctly does not properly identify them. Our photo hosting site (photoisland.com) was kind enough to accidentally delete the picture of the second coin so it will have to wait until we can get it out of the bank and re photo it.
Best,
Sid and Alicia

sumnom

I am not familiar with Kann's work. I am just identifying the pieces from their inscriptions.

The second one literally says, "In commemoration of the establishment of the constitution." The consitution was promulgated in 1916 but according to Krause, which depends on Kann, the silver version of the pieces were minted in 1923.

The third one reads, "Empire of China, Beginning of the Hongxian Period." Hongxian was the name of the reign period Yuan Shikai chose when he planned to make himself emperor. "Empire of China" (zhonghua tiguo) has never been an official name of China but again, this was the name Yuan chose for his imperial bid. I once read somewhere that he had planned to enthrone himself in January of 1916 and had the commemoratives minted in late 1915, but they were dated 1916. I don't know if yours is an official or not. I am not an expert on this. I would suspect not, given that the dragon is the old Qing design.

historygeek

<<<dragon is the old Qing design.>>>

Well, the dragon does represents any Emperor. If the dragons are the same design it does not mean that the coin is a "non-official" issue: it could just mean that there are only so many ways a dragon can be portrayed or that dragons were commonly depicted in this manner or that Yuan shi-kai wanted the commemorative dollar depicted in this fashion to give his regime an aura of legitimacy.

Askari

Very impressive -- as usual -- and quite interesting pieces of history!!! I think I'm most impressed by the gold sychee. I've heard of them but this is the first I've ever seen.

It's possible that the "fantasy" coins really are the "official" issues. Since many consider Yuan's "Chinese Empire" to be a fantasy, that would be sufficient for some writers to use the term for either contemporary issues or later creations.

LovelyDarkAngel

Awesome!

sumnom

You are right, HG, but if you compare this dragon to other dragons on Yuan's issues, the design is quite different.

1jester

Simply awesome! Thanks for sharing, folks!