USD 20000 - 30000
2011-08-22 09:00:00
2011-08-23 19:00:00
CHINA. Tael Pattern Struck in Gold (Restrike), Year 29 (1903).Fr-unlisted; L&M-1019; K-927; Chang Foundation-pg.16 #2; Wenchao-pg.44 #6 (rarity five stars). Plain edge. Although struck at the Tientsin Mint, the original dies were ordered from and prepared by the Osaka Mint in Japan. This was done under the supervision of Robert Hart, Inspector General of Maritime Customs. The initial goal was an early attempt to unify Chinese coinage on the gold standard. <br /><br />Denominations were produced in 1 Tael, 5, 2, 1 and 1/2 Mace. The project failed for several reasons. The project met a great deal of resistance from the directors of the provincial mints as the outlined plan called for one central mint being responsible for coinage production. This was in order to insure the uniformity of the new coinage and would prove to cut into the profits of the provincial directors. Also, at this time there was no plan in place to deal with the vastly different types of paper money circulating in China and how to accept them in exchange. <br /><br />RARENGC MS-63.