Triton XIV, Lot: 1235. Estimate $75000. Sold for $65000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CHINA, Empire. Qīng (Ch’ing) Dynasty. Guāngxù (Kuang-Hsü). 1874-1908. AV Pattern Liǎng (Tael). Imperial Dragon type. Tiānjīn Central (Tientsin) mint. Dated cyclical year 4-8 (1907). “zào nián wèi dīng xù guāng (rosette) kù píng yì liǎng (rosette),” (Made in year dīngwèi [cyclical year] of Guāngxù/Treasury scales equal to 1 liǎng) in Hànzì, “jīn bì dà qīng,” (Gold coin of the great Qīng dynasty) in Hànzì / Flying imperial dragon facing, coiled leftward around fireball and surrounded by stylized clouds. Edge: Reeded. L&M 1024; Kann 1541; Friedberg 2; KM Pn39. In NGC slab graded MS 61, lustrous. Very rare.

From the Patrick H.C. Tan Collection.

The internal trade of silver–in varying forms–and of bronze cash coins had proven to be sufficient for transactions in China for over two millennia. The arrival of the twentieth century and the rise of a western presence in the far east, however, brought with it a new problem as foreign debts required settlement in gold, a metal rarely used economically in China’s past. Nearly 40 years removed from her initial attempt at a unified silver currency, China proposed the striking of one-tael pieces–and its fractions–in gold on an experimental basis. As the rate between gold and silver at the time were 1:32, a gold issue in the size and style of its silver counterpart was obviously unfit for circulation, its intrinsic value being over 30 times that of its denomination. Nevertheless, they represent an important attempt at a foray into a gold standard, a system on which China has never placed herself.

These pieces represent two of the rarer issues struck during this attempt, artistic marvels presenting an obverse with a crisp, clear calligraphic script, and a reverse with a large, impressive imperial dragon. The dragon motif on these two patterns is especially emblematic as a dynastic symbol, as it serves as a de facto bookend to the Ch’ing dynasty and imperial China as a whole, both ceasing under Kuang-Hsü’s nephew and successor, Hsüan-T’ung (Puyi), and ushering in the Republic of China.