Szechuan-Shensi Soviet dollar with Large Solid Stars (Y513.5) – obverse
Szechuan-Shensi Soviet dollar with Large Solid Stars (Y513.5) – reverse
This month, a reader from Canada contacted me for a free appraisal. He had a beautifully toned, authentic Y513.5 Szechuan-shensi Soviet dollar with large solid stars.
While not as rare as the Soviet dollar with large decorative stars presented in the article below, this is still a very scarce coin.
It was brought to Canada by his grandparents in 1936. They had traveled to China as missionaries and left just as the Sino-Japanese war started. I helped this reader to sell his coin to a Chinese coins collector, and almost a century later, this beautiful Chinese coin has found its way back home to the Szechuan province.
I wish 国庆节快乐 to our Chinese readers!
I saw an earlier comment on another post of yours, and I was wondering where could I buy genuine Qing dynasty silver in Beijing. If you see this comment can you please give me some locations and prices for different coins?
Thanks,
Jason
Hello Jason, sorry for the late reply. I would recommend the 马甸桥 (Madian Qiao) market in Beijing, especially 王永利 (Wang Yong Li) or 刘涛 (Liu Tao). If you go there by taxi, usually drivers will know that street as “副利特” (Fu Li Te). There is also reputable shops in the 报国寺 (Bao Guo Si) market. The 潘家园 (Pan Jia Yuan) market (sadly often recommended on Lonely Planet or travellers’ guide) is at best a tourist attraction, everything you will see there is fake. As for prices, as you know they are subject to large variations according to variety and condition, but the baseline is about 600 RMB for a VF Yuan Shih Kai dollar (Tientsin variety), 2000 RMB for a VF 1911 Imperial dollar, 2500 RMB for common Dragon Dollars like the 1908 Chihli dollar or Hupeh dollar in VF condition. These common coins are more or less traded as collectible bullion and are rarely certified. Most anything worth collecting will be sold in a PCGS holder, and quite likely to be worth over 5000 RMB. Hope this helps!
thanks for your help!