The so-called "Fat Man" dollar — named for the rotund rendering of Yuan Shikai's portrait — was the dominant silver trade coin of early Republican China, and this half-yuan pattern belongs to the competitive process that preceded its adoption. Luigi Giorgi was an Italian engraver employed by the Paris Mint who produced several competing pattern submissions in 1914. His pieces were never adopted for circulation; the contract ultimately went to the Kremnitz-trained engravers working through the Banca Italiana di Sconto's arrangement with the Beijing government.
Kann 655a distinguishes this from other Giorgi submissions by specific die characteristics. Patterns of this type saw extremely limited production, almost certainly no more than a handful of examples.
The so-called "Fat Man" dollar — named for the rotund rendering of Yuan Shikai's portrait — was the dominant silver trade coin of early Republican China, and this half-yuan pattern belongs to the competitive process that preceded its adoption. Luigi Giorgi was an Italian engraver employed by the Paris Mint who produced several competing pattern submissions in 1914. His pieces were never adopted for circulation; the contract ultimately went to the Kremnitz-trained engravers working through the Banca Italiana di Sconto's arrangement with the Beijing government.
Kann 655a distinguishes this from other Giorgi submissions by specific die characteristics. Patterns of this type saw extremely limited production, almost certainly no more than a handful of examples.