In another thread I posted some photos of some Chinese Coins. I was basically told that they were all fake. Since I am too depressed to keep visiting that thread , I thought I would start a new one on some Yuan Shih-Kai dollars that I have. I have 24 of them and there are 4 varieties in the group. Since the reverse is the same on all of them, here is a photo of the obverse of each one. The upper left one I can find in the 1997 Krause/Mishler Std. World Coin Catalog (Y#329), however the others I cannot find. I am too cheap to go buy a new catalog, so I don't know if the new one is better. So, are these fakes or someother kind of variety? I am especially curious to know what the coins are with the rosettes on them are. Any info you can give you be greatly appreciated. Best Regards, - Hal
Well Hal, there may be only 3 varieties in your group of Republic of China coins from the days before the Communist takeover of the Chinese government on the mainland, unless you consider coins with different dates to be different varieties. Without commenting on whether they are real or fake, which I can't tell from your pictures, you have correctly identified the one at the upper left as Y#329, dated as "Republic 3 Year" (1914). The next to last character, reading right to left, is a 3, and the last character is "Year". The lower left is dated "Republic 10 Year" (1921), and is probably Y#329.6, but a careful examination of the reeded edge is necessary to distinguish Y#329.5 (which has oblique reeding) from the more common Y#329.6 (which has vertical reeding). The "plus sign" in position 2 is a 10. The other two are dated "Republic 8 Year" (1919 - top right, definitely Y#329.6), and "Republic 5 Year" (1916 - bottom right*). The characters in the next to last position are "8" and "5", respectively. *There is a problem with the 1916 - Krause does not list "fat man" coins for 1915-16 in the 2003 30th Ed. I suspect that the coin is either Y#329.1, .2, .3, or .4, none of which I can find in the #%*^@$ 30th Ed., which is known to be rife with errors. The 1919 is the most valuable of the other three, with a catalog value of either $10 or $17.50 in F, which is the most that coin might grade at IMHO. Krause does not list mintages for any of the "fat man" coins All of them, if genuine, are 26.4g of .8900 silver, with an actual silver weight of .7555 oz. (about six bucks melt value).
Ha Ha!!! On this forum I am totally being schooled, much like Okafor is schooling Schenscher. (That following comment only make sense if you are watching the NCAA Basketball Championship like I am right now). Thanks Satootoko for all the great info. Do you know if those flowers or rosettes on the 1916 mean anything in particular or was it something just done for that year for the heck of it? Best Regards, - Hal P.S. Congrats to any UCONN fans on winning the NCAA Basketball Championship.
That particular flower design appears on a number of Republic coins, especially from the early Taiwan years, but since the only reference book I have on Chinese coinage is Krause, the 1916 "fat man" is a complete mystery to me.
