Republic of China. 1932. Year 31 Silver "Birds over junk" dollar. When the government was considering issuing a new public circulating silver dollar, they issued the following series which depicted a Chinese junk with a rising sun and 3 birds flying above. When released, they quickly realized an overwhelming resistance and disapproval from the public as the rising sun became associated with Japan whilst the 3 birds looked like battle aircrafts. It coincided with a period of intense rivalry and resistance against the Japanese imperialistic ambitions in China. Thus the design was quickly removed from circulation and replaced with the well known junk dollar bearing the same design minus the sun and the birds.
Don't listen to mrbreeze, please offload this horrible thing on me. I'll gladly relieve you of your burden(!) Sweet coin. Nice photo, too.
Oh boy. Had to go dig mine out. 1934, no birds. Now I have another type coin on my world crown want list.
One of the few coins I wished I'd had the money to be able to keep...all time best cherrypick for me. But such is life...and I could only have been a "caretaker" of the coin for a short time, anyway, so...on to the next hunt.
Just a slight correction, I do read some Mandarin and the year is 21 of the republic not 31 - otherwise it would be ca. 1942.
You're right.. it was a typo on my end.. the Qing Dynasty ended in 1911. That is the year the republic was born.. thus adding 21 to 1911 makes it 1932
Haha.. I like collecting uglies.. especially if they tell a story.. I was actually attempting to complete my Junk dollar set.. I have a pattern and a common issue. This birds version filled the gap..
