I have recently acquired a few commemorative trade dollars issued by the British Mint which might be of interest to Forum members. Three 1999 (Year of the Rabbit) dollars commemorate the return of Macao to china, and the third the 50th anniversary for the founding of PRC. These are the plain versions. A rather garish colour version is also available I believe. I hate that rabbit! The other two coloured dollars commemorate the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. One shows Hong Kong at dusk with the British flag, the other Hong Kong at dawn with the PRC flag. Very symbolic. I was told the coins were produced from the original trade dollar dies, with just the date changed. Is this technically possible? I would have expected the date to be an integral part of the die, and not changeable. Hope you find the dollars as attractive as I do (apart from the ****** rabbit.)
This is the first I have seen of these coins. Thanks for bringing these to my/our attention. They are nice looking.
I forgot to scan the certificate that came with the Hong Kong dollars. See below. Note the auspicious mintage! No certificate with my Macao dollars.
The Cantonese for 8 - Baat - sounds very like the word for prosperous. In contrast, 4 - Sei - sounds like the word for Die, so is very inauspicious.
Wow, my lucky number has always been 4. It doesn't sound very good now. Thanks for that tidbit of info.
