Yunnan. Hsüan-t'ung "Spring" Dollar CD 1910 AU58 NGC, Kunming mint(?), KM-Y260.1 (Rare), L&M-428 (same dies), Kann-177, WS-0692 (same dies), Wenchao-841 (rarity 5 stars), Chang Foundation-Unl. Standard dragon design/Seven Chinese characters across top, instead of normal four. The legendary Chinese Dragon Dollar, called the "Yunnan Spring Dollar" in reference to the seven Chinese characters across the top that translate roughly to, "Made in the Spring 1910 in Yunnan Province." This fantastic issue is also the only coin in Chinese numismatics that features a season of the year as part of the date. An enigmatic issue, one of China's rarest coins with only three specimens known, it has been a coin of mystery and legend since its discovery, around 1920. Although there has been constant research in Chinese numismatic circles, over time no definite reason, or meaning for the term, "Spring 1910," has yet been discovered. In their catalog listing for the first known specimen, Champion Hong Kong Auction proposed that the minting of the Spring Dollar may have been tied to the completion of the French-built Tonkin-Yunnan Railroad (also known as the Kunming-Haiphong Railway) on April 1st, 1910, officially opening just after the Spring Equinox. A monumental effort that took nearly 40 years to complete and claimed a death toll numbering well into the thousands at a time when the population of the Yunnan Province was just around 85,000, the railway was first proposed in 1871, though it took until 1885 to officially consult with the Qing government. Likely struck at the provincial mint at Kunming, which had only just struck its first coins in 1908 and served as the terminus of the rail line, this commemorative may well have been intended as a presentation piece for French or Chinese officials associated with the transcontinental railroad, though it would seem that it was never distributed. The first genuine example of this issue to appear at public auction--the same piece plated in Lin and Ma's Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Gold & Silver Coins and Wang Chu Li's Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Gold & Silver Coins--was sold by Hua Chen in Beijing in April 2002. This piece was later re-sold in Cheng Xuan's Autumn 2007 sale in Beijing (lot 1863) where it realized 3,192,000 RMB (US $468,000). Champion Hong Kong Auction then sold the same coin (AU55 NGC) for the astounding price of US $1,035,000 in their August 2010 Hong Kong sale (lot 12), making it the first Chinese coin to ever exceed the million-dollar threshold. The present offering is the finest of the three known examples. Graded and certified by NGC, this piece was struck from the exact same dies as the other two and previously sold in our September 2011 Long Beach Signature Auction for $546,250, including Buyer's Premium. We feel, if anything, that the grade assigned by NGC is somewhat conservative, as the offering reveals fully lustrous surfaces and a distinctively mottled reverse toning pattern that identifies it from the other specimens, along with a virtually Mint State appearance free of all but a few stray marks. Sharply struck with little, if any, actual wear observable, it is interesting to note that the present representative has not been plated in any of the major Chinese references, reinforcing its supreme rarity and remarkably few public appearances. Rated as a rarity 5 stars in Dong Wenchao's An Overview of China's Gold & Silver Coins of Past Ages--the highest rarity used by the work and a designation awarded to surprisingly few pieces--and quite probably the rarest of the Chinese regular circulation issue Dragon Dollars, it undoubtedly represents one of the gems of the Chinese numismatic series that most only dream of ever seeing! Ex. Dr. Norman Jacobs Collection (Heritage 2011 Long Beach Signature Auction, Lot 23943); A. M. Tracey Woodward Collection, acquired by Dr. Jacobs from the Woodward Collection through the noted New York numismatist Robert Friedberg in 1952. Estimate available upon request.

HID09801242017

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