China (1933) dollar Y-345
This specimen was lot 52444 in Stack's Bowers Hong Kong auction (Hong Kong, April 2021), where it sold for $12,000. The catalog description[1] noted, "CHINA. Dollar, Year 22 (1933). PCGS MS-64+ Gold Shield. An attractive well struck survivor with a thin layer of mottled patina over the lustrous satiny surfaces." Altho the Yuan Shih-kai dollar of 1914-20 (Y-329.6) was successful in driving out all the foreign dollars circulating in China, by the time Chiang Kai-Shek came to power in the late twenties, it was seen as monarchical and anti-republican. The regime commissioned patterns to honor founder Sun Yat-Sen and the Italian design was ordered into production in 1932. It was modified in 1933 to delete the rising sun on the reverse and struck 1933-34 in large quantities. More were struck in San Francisco for Chiang in 1949 as he was inexorably driven out of China by the communists. The type is common in all grades but vastly increased demand has driven the price into orbit.
Recorded mintage: 46,400,000.
Specification: 26.73 g, 0.900 fine silver.
Catalog reference: L&M-109; K-623; KM-Y345; WS-0145a.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Lin Gwo Ming, Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Gold & Silver Coins: Ching and Republican Issues, Seventh Edition, Hong Kong: Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co., Ltd., 2012.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The April 2021 Hong Kong Auction, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
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