See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

1 Yuan / 1 Dollar Pattern, Founding of the Republic: Yuan Shikai, copper

Issuer Republic of China
Year 1914
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Weight Log in to see details
Diameter Log in to see details
Thickness Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Luigi Giorgi
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description Uniformed bust of Yuan Shikai facing forward, wearing a tall plumed military hat adorned with a central star. The effigy depicts him in full military dress with epaulettes and a prominent star-shaped decoration on the chest. The portrait is rendered in high relief with fine detail, characteristic of Luigi Giorgi's medallic engraving style. The field is smooth and the coin is bordered by a continuous beaded rim.
Obverse script Log in to see details
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering 幣念紀和共國民華中 壹 圓 ONE DOLLAR
(Translation: Founding commemorative coin of the Republic of China 1 Yuan)
Edge Log in to see details
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

Yuan Shikai's dollar series of 1914 was the product of a deliberate centralization effort — his government contracted the Cranfield & Co. engravers via the Tianjin Mint to produce a unified national coinage that would displace the chaotic provincial issues still circulating across China. Patterns were struck in multiple metals to evaluate the design before silver production began in earnest. The copper examples were never intended for circulation; they exist as approval pieces from the approval and rejection cycle that preceded the issued coinage.

The silver "Yuan Shikai dollar" went on to become arguably the dominant trade coin in Republican China for decades. This copper pattern did not.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE