I won this on ebay a while ago and received it recently. I've never felt so strangely when I held this particular "coin": Quoted from the seller: --- What we present here is one of the famous Chinese Silver Dragon Dollars. However the example of this coin we present here is very different and very rare. After the Tian An Men Square massacre in Beijing an organization was formed to assist Chinese exchange students who were stranded in the United States where they had been studying. One of the devices they used to raise money was to counterstamp a few hundred old Chinese Silver Dollars and sell them at a premium. In the center of the counterstamp was an anti-Communist logo and circling that the name of the group. On one side of the coin the lettering was in Chinese and on the other side of the coin the lettering was in English. Some of the coins actually had chop marks which were very traditional in old China as they guaranteed that this was a piece of good silver and that could pass in circulation. With only about 200 of these Counterstamped Chinese Silver Dragon Dollars in existence, these are extremely rare, historically very interesting and it would be very difficult to find one of these coins today. This is a rare opportunity to obtain a rare and interesting coin. It comes complete in the specially printed envelope in which the coins were sold. --- Clearly an Anti-Soviet logo overstruck on a heavily chopmarked Kiang Nan province silver dollar coin. On the envelope as follows: China Freedom Dollar - Support the Federation - Save the students One piece Thank you for your support B.C.S.S.A. A quick google check on BCSSA refers to this site: http://www.bcssa.us/cms/index.php Berkeley Chinese Students and Scholars Association (BCSSA) is a student organization registered at ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) on Berkeley campus. Quite interesting. Couldn't find any more information. Maybe I should send an email at the Berkeley campus to see anything like this did happen.
That's really an interesting piece gxseries. Are all the devices ... crossed out hammer and sickle, and the writing ... all counterstamped on the coin? In the pic they look raised, but I know from having photographed a lot of counterstamps before that the light is hard to get just right sometimes. I collect counterstamps, mostly U.S. though, but would love to have a coin like this. Greg Brunk, who has a great book dealing with world counterstamps, is also writing a book about political counterstamps and may not know about this one. I submit a lot of my research finds to him, and correspond with him on a regular basis. I'll send your info to him with pics for him to take a look at. I'd like to give you credit if he decides to list this one, so if you want to give me your name please p/m me. Again, congrats. A great find Bruce
Hi gxseries.. Thanks for sharing the photos and the data. A great piece of Chinese and world history. Let us know if and when you receive more information... Clinker
