I purchased the Chinese 1920 "Fat Man" Dollar pictured below at a local coin show in Rochester, NY in 1982 for $20.00, long before the runup in prices for Chinese coins. These coins were struck in 1914, 1919, 1920, and 1921. They were struck continuously thru 1929 and later restruck in the 1950s. It is estimated that over 750 million of these coin were struck ! I bought this coin because it was the only date of the 4 years I didn't have. Notice the die clash marks on the reverse under the last character , and give me honest opinions about this coin. Thanks for looking . China 1920, AR One Yuan: 26.95 gm, 38.96 mm, .890 fine, Y#329.6
With 88 looks I thought someone might peg this coin . Nine years ago I sent this coin to NGC for slabbing & it came back in a body bag . All of the Yuan Shih-kai dollars have been heavily counterfeited during the last 15 years after the surge in values. What puzzled me was the fact I bought this coin nearly 40 years ago when these coins were dirt cheap . I never suspected this coin could have been FAKE. After I got the coin back I still wasn't convinced it was a counterfeit until I put the coin on a scale. The average official weight for these is 26.40 gm, & my coin was. over a half gram heavier . The fineness of this coin is most likely much lower than .890 too. The lesson here is even very common coins bought years ago can be FAKE.
Very interesting - thanks for posting this, even with the bad news on authenticity. A few years ago I read somewhere - and I am sorry but I don't remember where - an account of an American in China (a missionary, I think) who made a bunch of "Fat Man" dollars in order to meet expenses. He was using the same silver content as the original (or close to it) - this wasn't an effort to pass bad money so much as it was a way to make recognized silver ingots. I think they were casting them, so they couldn't have been very convincing. From what I gathered, counterfeiting these was pretty common at the time (c. 1920s). It also seemed that the counterfeits were sometimes pretty well done. So look on the bright side - maybe yours was an unofficial copy made to use in the 1920s?
The chinese also make fake fatmans out of real silver as well. I mean think about it, spend 20 or so in silver and you can sell these to collectors who think its the real thing for 100s of dollars? Still a big profit! I won't touch any fatman unless they are slabbed
Mike, The Chinese are great counterfeiters & I have no doubt there are fake "Fat Man" dollars that have been slabbed on the market today .
For anyone interested in "Fat Man" dollars, I wrote an article about a year ago on a 1914 one Yuan coin that was made into an ashtray. That ashtray will be coming up for auction at CNG near the end of the year . See the link below. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/chinese-coin-silver-ashtray-with-a-message.344304/
I remember back around 1988 you could buy Fat Man dollars from US dealers for about $8 - they are really, really common. This is before the Chinese collector's market went into overdrive. Back then, they were hardly worth counterfeiting, although I'm sure somebody was. I wish I'd bought more of them! As for ashtrays, that is a great looking Fat Man ashtray, Al - especially with the countermarks. It should do quite well at auction. I sort of collect coin ashtrays, if they come up cheap on eBay. Here are a few: Here is a UK 1797 twopence made into a ladle or wine-taster or something:
Wow ! Mike you've got some beauties, it's hard to pick a favorite . I love to see coins inset into art objects by silversmiths . The British 2 pence of George III in the wine taster is special, & I like they way the reverse of the coin is visible . What a great utensil to sip your cream sherry with .
