Taiwan. Bi Pao Military Ration "Sumi Calligraphy Brushes" Dollar ND (1853) AU Details (Chopmarked) NGC, Tainan mint(?), KM-C25-5 (Rare; 1862), L&M-325, Kann-4 (1862), WS-1002, Wenchao-182 (rarity 3 stars). With "Ku" (Treasury) stamp. Issued by General Tai Chou-chung. An excessively rare type within this already challenging military ration series, and one which we've been able to locate only two other examples of appearing at auction in the past decade. Produced during an uprising in Fung Shan contemporaneous with the Taiping Rebellion for military expenditures, surprisingly little seems to be recorded for the history of this Bi Pao type; while Wenchao suggests a similar rarity between this and the Ju-I "Lotus" Dollars, and Kann had four in his collection, both Lin and Ma and the Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Gold & Silver Coins record a much higher value for this type, a fact support by its absence from the Chang Foundation collection. Both Kann and the Standard Catalog of World Coins suggest a date around 1862, though more recent Chinese scholarship places alongside the emissions of Li Shek and Lin Kung. While these Taiwanese emissions come universally chopmarked, the offering loses little of its underlying detail to this process, with a distinctive increase in the sharpness of the devices as one moves outwards from the centers. The only other sales record we can draw the potential bidder's attention to is an XF Details piece which brought $45,000 in April 2012.

HID09801242017

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