(1897)二十三 P$1 Y-45.1 LM-192A ASTC Var Brass SP(PCGS#544089)

May 2020 Hong Kong World Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

42001

等级

SP63

价格

1,020,633

详细说明

First Public Offering of Newly Discovered Anhwei Brass Pattern Dollar CHINA. Anhwei. Brass 7 Mace 2 Candareens (Dollar) Pattern, Year 23 (1897). PCGS MS-63 Gold Shield. cf. L&M-192A (metal not listed), K-unlisted; cf. KM-Pn1 (metal not listed); cf. KM-Y-45.1 (metal not listed); cf. H. Chang-CH43 (metal not listed); Chang Foundation-pg.140 #64; Wenchao-pg.718 #1145, cf.WS-1067 (metal not listed), cf. Hao-I-5-02. T.A.S.C. (often written as "A.S.T.C" for those reading lines from left to right). This EXTREMELY RAREbrass pattern is for the first Dollar of the Anhwei Mint and can best be described as a specimen or essay; it is clearly of special manufacture intended for presentation purposes. On the character side, the English letters "T. A. S. C." are neatly placed in a clockwise manner within the beaded circle. Wenchao suggests it is an abbreviation of "TATSING AN-HWEI SILVER COIN", meaning "Anhwei silver coin of the Great Qing". This piece exhibits a complete strike with all raised designs displaying sharpness that leaves nothing to the imagination. While strong reflective quality still exists in the fields, the pleasing original skin has slightly subdued some of its vibrancy, with traces of mottled brassy tone here and there. This issue (silver, brass or otherwise) remained unknown to most early catalogers and was missing from major collections such as Eduard Kann, Irving Goodman, Wa She Wong and Norman Jacobs. Of the highest importance and utmost rarity, this discovery piece, previously known only by the Chang Foundation/Wenchao Specimen, is sure to excite all levels of collectors from the novice to the connoisseur. Truly, a coin that is destined to become a centerpiece in its new owner's collection, as opportunities to acquire such an elite rarity are few and far between. The Anhwei Mint, formerly located in the city of Anking, was originally founded in the 23rd year of Kuang Hsu (1897). Initially this mint was established for the purpose of producing local silver coinage with the intent to replace the then-popular Carolus 8 Reales; clearly, this goal was not achieved as 8 Reales remained in circulation well into the 20th century. While Edward Kann was conducting research for his masterpiece, Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins, he was unable to locate mint records for the Anhwei Mint. Today, the silver coinage from this province generally remains scarce to rare, suggesting rather small mintages. This short-lived mint produced coinage for approximately two years before coining operations ceased and the mint was dismantled. Perhaps the reason for the short-lived nature of the mint was the lower purity metallic content of its silver emissions. Coinage from this province was not widely accepted by neighboring provinces as it was found to be lower purity silver than the products of other mints. This is perhaps the reason that silver issues from this mint are often found with many chopmarks. After the mint was dismantled, a new mint in Anhwei was established in the 28th year of Kuang Hsu (1902); however, its activities were limited to the production of copper coinage. With the exception of the patterns which were struck in Germany, production of all Anhwei silver coinage occurred at the first mint in Anking. The 2012 discovery of production material shed new light on the creation of this coinage. The findings included patterns, dies, hubs and a series of punches from the archives of the Otto Beh Company of Esslingen, Germany, specialists in the production of seals and dies. Before this, the origins of the dies used to produce coinage for the provinces of Anhwei (such as the present piece), Chekiang, Fengtien, Heilungkiang and Sungarei were only speculated upon. To date, patterns are known struck in silver, silvered-brass, brass and aluminum, but this does not include samples of everything that Beh produced, as the number and variety of dies far outnumber the known patterns. From neighboring Goppingen, Louis Schuler received an order for coining presses in 1895 and commissioned Otto Beh to manufacture the dies. In 1897 and 1898, Beh supplied Schuler with over 200 dies for Chinese coins. At the time, this was the largest order that the company had ever received. Schuler, which started as a Locksmith's shop in 1839, had grown to become one of the world's leaders in metal forming and in fact supplied the aforementioned mints with coining presses. We have offered several variations of the Dollar patterns from this series including a version of this pattern struck in silver listed in our Ponterio & Associates NYINC Auction January 7, 2011 Lot # 827 (hammering down at an impressive $280,000 plus buyers fee) and a silvered brass pattern version in our Stacks Bowers & Ponterio Hong Kong Auction April 2, 2013 as lot # 21217 (unsold). Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000. Click here for certification details from PCGS. Image with the PCGS TrueView logo is obtained from and is subject to a license agreement with Collectors Universe, Inc. and its divisions PCGS and PSA. 首次公開拍賣呈獻　從未披露安徽省造黃銅樣幣 光緒二十三年安徽省造七錢二分銅樣幣。 極罕的安徽造幣廠首枚銀幣銅樣，一般稱之為樣幣或試作幣。明顯是為送樣而特別製作的。字面部分，英文字母"T.A.S.C"於珠圈內以順時針方向排列規整，意為"安徽省造大清銀幣（Anhwei silver coin of the Great Qing）。幣面細節清晰銳利，原始色澤略帶斑駁黃銅包漿。 早期許多藏家對此幣仍有未解之處，於眾多經典集藏如耿愛德、古德曼、黃華樞及諾曼中亦從缺。其歷史價值及罕見程度，足以令所有藏家大為讚歎，如今正是絕佳機會收入囊中，定會為集藏添光溢彩。 安徽造幣廠位於安慶，光緒二十三年(1897)設置之初是想要製造一種取代本洋的銀幣，而本洋到二十世紀仍大為通行，顯然其目的並未達成。當耿愛德編製其中國集藏的書籍之際，亦未能找出安徽省造的發行量。時至今日，安徽銀幣愈見稀少，原因應是當初的製額甚低，造幣廠運作不足兩年即被裁撤。安省銀幣在鄰近地區亦未能廣泛流通，可能是成色較其他省份為低，或是因為銀幣上通常戳記甚多。光緒二十八年(1902)再度設廠，但只生產銅元。安省龍銀除卻於德國所鑄的樣幣外，都是初次建廠時所造。 2012年，隨著對當時的生產工具有新發現，亦為此幣帶來新的亮點。這些發現包括樣幣、模具、二元模及一系列來自德國Otto Beh公司的存檔製模冲頭。在此之前，原始模具用於安徽（此枚）、浙江、奉天、黑龍江和新疆的幣製生產僅是猜測。Otto Beh為封蠟及模具的生產專家。到目前為止，已知打樣的有銀幣、銀銅幣、黃銅幣和鋁幣，但Beh生產的樣幣不止這些。其模具數量和種類遠遠超過已知的樣幣。1895年，路易斯-舒勒（Louis Schuler）從附近格平根（Goppingen）收到了壓鑄機的訂單，並委託奥托-拜赫（Otto Beh）製造模具。在1897年和1898年，Beh為Schuler提供了200多個用於中國硬幣的模具，這是當時該公司接到的最大的訂單。1839年，舒勒的商店開業，後來發展成為世界上領先的金屬成型企業之一，並為上述所提及的造幣廠提供了鑄幣設備。 我們曾上拍過同系列中的幾枚樣幣，包括同一款銀製樣幣在2011年1月7日NYINC拍賣會上以編號827上拍（落槌高價280,000美元，連佣金）；和一枚黃銅幣銀樣，在2013年4月2日香港拍賣會上編號為21217（流拍）。