Chihli Specimen Dollars Drive SARC Auction 38

STEPHEN ALBUM RARE Coins Auction 38 featured an exceptionally rare pair of Chinese specimen dollars from the Province of Chihli in the name of Kuang Hsu. Struck at the Peiyang Arsenal mint both pieces are the Y73 dollar type but they exhibit all the important characteristics of early specimen strikes. The SARC 38 catalog descriptions elaborate as follows; “The very bold striking quality is distinctly different especially in the detail in the design elements, lettering and denticles from other Peiyang year 29 dollars we have encountered. The concentric circular die tooling marks [on] either side are indicative of very early strikes from fresh dies as one would expect with Specimen strikes.”

We should consider these two silver dollars as discover pieces in the sense that they “are the first of the year 29 Peiyang dollars graded by the grading companies as Specimens.” As such, bidders found these two knock-out pieces highly desirable and heavy bidding brought stellar prices. The first of these siblings graded Specimen-65 and sold for $202,300 and the second graded Specimen-64+ and sold for $166,600, both figures with all fees included. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) had