An undated Chinese dollar of 1911 set a new hammer price record for a German auction when it sold for 460,000 euros, or about $625,000, Jan. 27 during Künker’s official sale of the World Money Fair in Berlin.
The coin, described in the auction catalog as being “Of utmost rarity, about Brilliant Uncirculated,” carried a pre-sale estimate of 10,000 euros, or about $13,500.
A number of Chinese bidders travelled to the one-day sale, and half a dozen interested parties from the Far East participated by telephone, according to the Osnabruck firm. A physically present bidder claimed the dollar in the end.
With its Chinese characters and depiction of a dragon, the coin appears common to the undiscerning eye. The uncommon element of the 26.89-gram coin is the signature “GIORGI” on the reverse. The specimen was missing in the Davenport and Edward Kann catalogs, according to Künker.
The Empire, which had been flooded by U.S. dollars and Mexican coins in the 19th century, proceeded to produce its own dollars. The test coin, minted in Tientsin in the last year of the reign of the Chinese Emperor Hsuang Tung (1908-1911), represents the end: in 1911, the Empire made way for the Republic of China.
