Sometimes lower silver content can be worth more! - China's Fat Man

Normally when you mention lower quality silver coins, you'd assume that it's worth less than it's normal higher silver content counterpart.

This isn't the case with one of China's silver coins.

Commonly known as China Fat Man (Yuan Shi Kai)



Used to be quite cheap back in the days. Still affordable in lower grade condition.

These were struck in large mintage. These were originally meant to be struck in 90% silver content but as internal conflict occurred in China, some of these coins were struck with lower silver content in later years. These are difficult to distinguish. Many were melted down during World War II, followed by cultural revolution.

Gansu Province issued an interesting coin. This is easy to tell as it has the characters Gansu.



These were intentionally struck with debased silver content (70%?) as Gansu is considerably poorer compared to other provinces in China. From the very start of it's circulation - these were not widely accepted by merchants. Today, these are in very high demand due to its scarcity.

One PCGS auction show absurd price for XF condition
https://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices/item/1914-1-lm-617-kansu/115723/-3640487211098325233

More reading about Yuan Shi Kai coinage can be found here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Shikai_coinage

A full set of YSK silver coinage can be surprisingly difficult to assemble, especially the half yuan!

Please feel free to share your Fat Man coins

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Here is the one I have. I don't know what province but it doesn't have as many characters on the fat man side as yours. I also have a 1 jiao coin which has the fat man.